History of the rosary

 There are differing views on the history of the rosary, a Christian prayer rope, cord or chain used to count specific prayers, commonly as a Marian devotion. The exact origin of the rosary as a prayer is less than clear and subject to debate among scholars. The use of knotted prayer ropes in Christianity goes back to the Desert Fathers in the 3rd and early 4th centuries. These counting devices were used for prayers such as the Jesus prayer in Christian monasticism. The period after the First Council of Ephesus in 431 witnessed gradual growth in the use of Marian prayers during the Middle Ages.

The practice of meditation during the praying of the Hail Marys was attributed to Dominic of Prussia (author of Liber experientiae 1458), a 15th-century Carthusian monk, who called it the "Life of Jesus Rosary" (vita Christi Rosarium). However, in 1977, a theologian from Trier named Andreas Heinz discovered a vita Christi rosary that dated to 1300, suggesting the origin of the current rosary extends back at least to that time.

  

According to a Dominican tradition, in 1208 the rosary was given to Dominic in an apparition by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the church of Prouille.[5][6] This Marian apparition received the title of Our Lady of the Rosary.[7] Most scholars agree that this version of events falls more in the realm of legend than that of history and that the rosary developed gradually over several centuries.[8]

In the 15th century Alanus de Rupe (a.k.a. Alain de la Roche or Saint Alan of the Rock), a Dominican priest and theologian, is said to have received a vision from Jesus about the urgency of reinstating the rosary as a form of prayer. Rupe also said that he received the Virgin Mary's "15 Promises". Before his death on September 8, 1475 he reinstituted[a] the rosary in many countries and established many rosary confraternities. Despite the popularity of Rupe's story about the origins of the rosary, there has never been found any historical evidence positively linking Dominic to the rosary. The story of Dominic's devotion to the rosary and supposed apparition of Our Lady of the Rosary does not appear in any documents of the church or Dominican Order prior to the writings of Rupe,[4] some 300 years later.