Tradition associates the origin of the Rosary with St. Dominic as you can see depicted in this painting but, as we shall see, it is was not the Rosary as we know it today.

Dominic Guzman (1170-1221 AD) was a Spanish priest who in the Languedoc region of southern France encountered the Albegensian. The Albigensians believed that the spiritual world including the soul of man was created by the good God and that the material world including the human body was created by an evil god who imprisoned the soul in a material body. Therefore, the true end of man is liberation from the human body. This led to a deformed morality which considered marriage evil and approved suicide. Christ's body could not be under the control of the evil principle, he did not have a real human body but a celestial one.

Dominic traveled from village to village preaching the mysteries of faith but found much opposition. Discouraged, one day he turned to Our Lady for help. Tradition tells us that in a vision Mary told him that he should pray the Marian Psalter interspersed with the Our Father, along with his preaching. The Marian Psalter in the 12th century consisted only of 150 Hail Maries follows:

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you,
blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

It does not appear that the Our Father was part of the Marian Psalter but the Paternoster or the practice of praying 150 Our Fathers was the earliest way to pray the Psalter for the average person. So, Dominic along with preaching the mysteries of faith lead the people in praying a decade of the Marian Psalter. In this way the grace of God opened their hearts and he brought about many conversions.

The Rosary we have today was not directly given to St. Dominic by Mary. Dominic used he Marian Psalter along with his preaching. It was left to the Confraternity of the Rosary promoted by Blessed Alan de la Roche 1475 with its many cells in Europe to think over the selection and order of Mysteries in association with the Aves and Paternosters. Since St. Dominic began this process, it is fitting to consider him as the originator of the Rosary.

What can we say about the use of Rosary Beads?

Rosary beads were at first strings of beads used for counting the Aves similar to the Paternoster beads already in use. The complete string consisted of 150 beads to resonate the 150 Psalms, but in common use were a number variations. The beads signifance transcends counting is well expressed by Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, p.111 " From its inception onward, the rosary devotion was intimately tied to the string of beads that came to represent it. The many uses and attractiveness of rosary beads were conducive to the prayer's success. Indeed, they lent the devotion an added aesthetic dimension and a certain concreteness, even as simple as the tactile comfort of something to grasp onto in times of trouble and especially in the final hours." The material aspect was inevitable because man/woman are composed of body and soul and the best prayers, that which gives greater glory to God, must engage the totality of human nature. The living earth must also praise the Lord.

The Rose Window