The rosary has a long and honored tradition and its present form it can be dated back to the last 14th century. The present day rosary seems to have been the work of the Dominican fathers however there is parts that actually date back to St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order.
St. Dominic was handed the method to pray the Rosary directly from The Blessed mother. And according to Alan de la Roche St. Dominic revived the rosary on this revelation. At the time St. Dominic was fighting the Albigensians.
They were a sect that lived in the south of France in the 12th and 13th centuries. They mostly were a group that created what they called heresies. They believed in two opposing .God. principles, one that was good one that was bad. They also did not think that the Church had any authority. The Albigensians also rejected the premise of sacraments and a sacramental church. And one of their most radical beliefs was there was no resurrection of the body and they did not condone marriage. St. Dominic was trying to use the rosary as away to confront the heredities and bring the Albigensians back to the church.
The Church in the early days was often threaded by these heresies. And the Church would assemble Councils to help deal with these wrong believe. But the Albigensians grew in popularity which forced the church to send in missionaries St Dominic was one of the missionaries to help deal with this and get this group back on track. He did have some success but the Crusades came. This helped break the group down even farther.
There have been many who often try to minimize St. Dominic.s role in the formation of the modern rosary and place the formation of the modern rosary into the earlier times. But even without placing the rosary in the 12th century it has a long rich history in the church for its devotion to Mary and its meditative properties.
When trying to trace the history of the rosary it is difficult. There is very minimal documentation on the rosary to show when it began or how it began. Through the ages though the each Pope has always advocated its use and written about it favorably. But despite the lacking documentation on it, there is no doubt of the Dominican influence and devotion to the rosary. They have long advocated the recitation of the Hail Mary and the meditation of the events of Jesus life.
It was thought that back in the 12th century the original rosary contained 150 prayers, initially consistent with the 150 Psalms the residents of a town could hear the monasteries pray. Because only a select few could read they would mimic what they would hear using initially the .Our Father. as its base. It then moved to the Hail Mary.s in 3 groups of fifty and was assigned what we know as the Joyful, the Sorrowful and the Glorious Mysteries or events in Christ.s life.
Eventually the beads were assigned the actual Hail Mary prayer we pray today, making it that by the 16th century the Rosary is what we know it to be today with the one addendum of Pope John Paul II making the last change adding the Luminous Mysteries to the fold on the anniversary of his 25th year of being Pope.
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