The rosary acknowledges Mary's role in our redemption

May is the month of Mary. Almost synonymous with Mary is the rosary. The rosary is steeped in mystery and deep in theology. Pinpointing the origin of the rosary is not easy because it is surrounded in both fact and legend. Wading through this material can be a confusing task since every pamphlet seems to differ somewhat in its origin.

The most popular legend is that the rosary was given by Mary to St. Dominic of Guzman before the Battle of Muret in 1213 to aid in the overthrow of the Albigenese. But the legend of St. Dominic did not originate during the saint's lifetime nor during the century in which he lived. In the 18th century a group of scholars set out to rewrite the lives of the saints so as to preserve all the truth and separate it from legend. The group concluded that the tradition of the direct gift to St. Dominic was not based on enough evidence to support it nor was it well authenticated.

In truth, the rosary is a combination of many streams of development. In the early days, the liturgical prayer of the church developed around the 150 psalms which Monks sang in the choir. But for laypeople, who could not read, 150 Our Fathers were substituted in place of the psalms. Some used a string of 150 beads to keep count.

A parallel development was taking place among people devoted to Mary. They said 150 Ave Marias (Angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary), mixed with verses and psalms, a devotion known as Our Lady's Psalter.

About the turn of the 13th century in England, the Cistercians developed a practice of meditating on the 15 joys of the Blessed Virgin. Between the 14th and 15th century, the 150 Ave Marias were divided into 15 decades, each preceded by the Lord’s Prayer.

In the book Rosario della gloriosa Vergine Maria, published in 1521, the author uses the word "mystery" for the first time in association with the rosary. The book introduced the idea of having a mystery introduced by each Our Father.
In 1573, a Dominican wrote the book Rosario della Sacratissima Vergine Maria which set the modern 15 mysteries in their typical division of joyful, sorrowful and glorious. This developed into 150 Hail Marys with 15 mysteries. Today, people usually pray five decades – or one set of mysteries – at a time, although strictly speaking, the rosary is all 15 decades (often called the Dominican Rosary). The crucifix and five more beads were added later. The three Hail Marys represent faith, hope and charity.

The word "bead" comes from "bede" which in early English meant a "prayer." The use of beads or some sort of counters to keep track of prayers is very old. Even today we see them among Mohammedans, Buddhists, Brahmins, and generally in India, China and Japan. Christian graves as far back as the third century have produced "abacus-like" devices which were probably used for praying. Beads were found in the tomb of St. Gertrude of Nivelles from the sixth century and St. Norbert from the 11th century. The application of the term rosarium (rose garden or crown of roses) to the prayer beads had its major development in the 14th and 15th century. At that time, the concept of a rose garden and a wreath of roses was firmly established as symbolizing the Mystic Rose of Scripture—the Virgin Mary. Thus, the term “rosary.”

The rosary took a prominent role when Europe was in crisis. In 1566, the Ottoman Empire was planning to invade Europe. Pope Pius V called for a crusade against the Turks. Only a handful responded: Don John of Austria, the Spaniards, the Venetians and the small Papal fleet. They were no match for the Turkish fleet, which outnumbered them three to one. Pope Pius V was a Dominican and Dominicans had a great devotion to the rosary. So he called for a rosary crusade in Europe to help the Christian forces. On Oct. 7, 1571, the Christian forces under Don John and Andrea Doria met the Turks off the coast of Greece, the Gulf of Lepanto, and miraculously defeated them. Don John confessed the victory was won, not by fighting arms, but by praying arms.

In thanksgiving, Pope Pius V instituted the first Sunday of October as the feast of Our Lady of Victory.

In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII, changed it to Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. Also, to honor the Dominican pope, all succeeding popes wear the white cassock of the Dominicans. Two hundred years later, after a new victory over the Turks by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1716, at Peterwardein, Hungary, Pope Clement XI extended the celebration of the feast of the rosary to the universal church. Finally, Pope Pius X fixed the feast on Oct. 7.

The rosary is not simply a mechanical repetition of the Hail Mary, punctuated by the Our Father and the Glory Be. It is a meditative prayer – meditating on the mysteries of our redemption as it is revealed through Scripture. More importantly, it is not a relic of the past unless we are prepared to discard the Gospels. The Lord’s Prayer and the greater part of the Hail Mary, as well as the "mysteries" come from the Gospels. The remainder of the Hail Mary comes to us from none other than the Council of Ephesus in 431. Ephesus was famous for its definition of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Theotokos, Mother of God, refuting the position of Nestorius and his followers. From here we get "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen." In the first half of the 16th century, the official "Catechism of the Council of Trent" approved the wording we have today and strict official adoption of the Hail Mary occurred in 1568 with its publication in the Roman Breviary.

In 1569, Pope Pius V officially recommended this prayer of "150 angelic salutations ... with The Lord’s Prayer at each decade ... while meditating on the mysteries which recall the entire life of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Apostle's Creed makes its first appearance in the rosary as mentioned in the Libellus perutilis published in 1495. It is a summary of the great mysteries of the Catholic faith, which are standard Gospel teachings.

"Mystery" does not mean something secret, hidden and not readily discernible. Pauline writings speak of the "mystery" long kept secret by God but not "made manifest to his saints" (Colossians 1:26). It emerges that the mystery is identified with the person of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:4; Colossians 4:3; 1 Timothy 3:16) and, at the same time, is identical with the Gospel: The proclamation of the Gospel is the mystery which was kept secret for long ages (Romans 16:25). In other words, the mystery is revelatory. The mysteries of the rosary reveal Christ to us and lead us into a fuller understanding of him.

Pope Paul VI proposes a profound harmony between the rosary and the liturgy when the rosary is contemplatively recited outside celebration. In Marialis Cultus (1974), he emphasizes the contemplative aspect of the rosary as effective both as a preparation for the celebration of the mysteries of our redemption in the eucharistic liturgy and as a continuation of its special graces in our lives.

The essence of the rosary devotion – its very heart and soul – is to ponder the mysteries of our redemption over and over again, as Mary did when they were actually unfolding before her eyes. Besides being Marian in nature, the rosary is Christocentric (having Christ as its center). Our Lady focuses our attention on her Son. We look at Jesus through the eyes of someone who was closest to him: His Mother. We are also acknowledging Mary's role in our redemption. We easily find this articulated in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Nov. 21, 1964.Mary is an example of the connection of the Order of Salvation and the Order of Creation (grace and nature; God and people). To the Father, she is the daughter; to the Son, she is his mother; to the Spirit, she is the sanctuary. Mary also has a relationship to us: The redeemed. She is a human like us, she is "supereminently, uniquely, archetypically" a member of the people of God, and yet her exultation does not diminish her solidarity with us.

Mary plays a crucial part in salvation. In her fiat (her “yes, let it be done to me”), she is not only passively engaged, but completely co-operative in our salvation in a receptive sense. She entered into being a cause for salvation, of which humanity is a recipient. She actively gives and receives her "yes." Mary is the model and mediatrix of the graces that we continually need to become better disposed to grow in love. Through the use of the rosary, we can ponder the mysteries of our redemption just as Mary pondered the mysteries which unfolded before her, so that we may answer the invitation of her Son.

As Saint John Paul II says in the encyclical Mother of the Redeemer, the church has from the beginning modeled herself on the earthly journey of the Mother of God. "It is to her as mother and model that the church must look in order to understand in its completeness the meaning of her mission." What better way to look to the Mother of God than to meditate on her life, to see our Savior through the eyes of his mother, and to ponder our redemption?
Our Lady prayed the rosary with Bernadette at Lourdes. She brought it to Fatima with a promise attached to it. She spoke of "meditating" on the rosary.
The rosary teaches us everything we need to know. Its 15 mysteries encompass all the truths of the Christian life, if only we have eyes to see. On one occasion in the Vatican, Pope Paul VI is reported to have held up his rosary and proclaimed: "This is the Bible for those who can neither read nor write." The whole history of our salvation, the pope went on to explain, is contained in these mysteries which summarize the life of Christ. Pope after pope recalls to the flock the beauty of the rosary. The reason for this is simple: The ultimate foundation of the church's love for the rosary is her intense love for the Word of God. Saint John Paul II's Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, introduced the Luminous Mysteries in October 2002. The five mysteries, the Mysteries of Light (or the Luminous Mysteries), focus on the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

The rosary, as Mary told us at Lourdes, Fatima and Banneux, is a lever capable of moving heaven and earth. Her parting words at Fatima were: "My children, go on always saying the rosary."

(Father Michael Bergeron is a retired priest of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.)