Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The origins of this particular devotion are traditionally associated with St. Dominic in the thirteenth century. According to the Breviary “this rose garden (or rosary) is a certain form of prayer, wherein we say one hundred and fifty times the salutation of the angel, and the Lord’s Prayer between every ten times, and, each of the fifteen times that we say the Lord’s Prayer, and repeat tenfold the salutation, think of one of the fifteen great events in the history of our redemption. From that time forth this form of godly prayer was extraordinarily spread about by holy Dominic, and waxed common. That this same Dominic was the founder and prime mover thereof hath been said by Popes in divers letters of the Apostolic See.”
There is some uncertainty surrounding the tradition of the origin of this devotion with St. Dominic. It does not appear that he was the first to propose the frequent repetition of the Hail Mary, or other prayers a fixed number of times, nor the author of the idea of counting them with beads. It has therefore been suggested that what St. Dominic actually did was to bring into use the practice of the hundred and fifty repetitions, with the accompanying meditations, as a substitute for the one hundred and fifty psalms in the psalter, for those who did not have the literacy to be able to say the office. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that substitutes for the office were already in existence. It may therefore be the case that St. Dominic was not so much the originator as the principal promulgator of this practice. What is certain is that the devotion of the Rosary was principally popularised by St. Dominic and the order that he founded. Whether it actually originated with him or was already in existence and was popularised by him remains unknown.
The practice of this devotion was so popular that it spread throughout the Church and was no longer confined to the Dominican order. In the sixteenth century the famous victory at the Battle of Lepanto over the Ottoman Turks on 7th October, 1571 was said to have been aided by the constant recitation of the rosary. Pope Gregory XIII subsequently decreed that this feast should be celebrated on the first Sunday in the month of October.
It has often been pointed out that, though this devotion proved very popular, it tended in practice to overshadow the divine office. Whereas earlier generations had been encouraged to participate in the divine liturgy itself they were now instead offered devotions such as the rosary as a substitute. The divine office was therefore reduced to being a prerogative of the clergy and the monks. The rosary is therefore often associated with other popular devotions such as the Stations of the Cross and later the Sacred Heart which became for the laity popular substitutes for participation in the divine liturgy. The devotion of the laity was therefore directed away from participation in the divine liturgy and became preoccupied with popular devotions and para- liturgies.
On the other side it can be said that, while ideally it would have been best if the medieval laity had been encouraged to participate more in the divine liturgy, in practice, given the low level of literacy, this was easier said than done. Far from being an attempt to divert the laity from participation in the liturgy, the devotion the Dominicans popularised helped to maintain the faith among the majority of the laity who did not have the literacy to say the divine office. Without devotions such as the rosary they would have had nothing to sustain their faith. It is better to have a popular substitute for the saying of the divine office than nothing at all. Though the devotion may seem mechanical and repetitive this is in practice the best way of learning at an elementary level. This also explains the popularity of the litany as a form of prayer. It is by constant repetition that the practice gradually seeps into the mind and can become a prayer of the heart as well as a mechanical repetition. It is clear that the new orders of friars (the Dominican and Franciscans) were the principal evangelists in the towns of medieval Europe and the devotions they popularised were clearly instrumental in this.
Louis Bouyer states: “The Rosary, like the Offices of Pater and Aves which at Citeaux were given to the lay brothers as a substitute for the divine office, had the great merit of a primitive simplicity. And it could, therefore serve to lead towards very pure contemplative prayer, when those who pray it have had at least plain, but good instruction in the Christian mystery…. Its simplicity, its pure and evangelical atmosphere of contemplation, when its mysteries are meditated on as parts of a single whole: the passage of Christ and of ourselves with him through death to life, make the rosary an easy way of extending liturgical contemplation throughout the whole of daily life, and an easy way of bringing the whole of our life continually back to its heavenly source…. We must never begin by trying to suppress what is already in existence and is giving experimental proofs of its usefulness, especially when we are not sure that we could effectively replace it by better, more traditional and more fruitful practices; but we must always try to reinfuse into devotions – even those which at first sight may seem the furthest away from authentic tradition – the true spirit of that tradition itself.”
Let us pray that we will faithfully apply the truth of this principle in our own time and place.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Leave a Reply