Main Dates in the History of the Rosary

To discover the origin of the rosary, we must go back to the Middle Ages. To understand the origin of the Hail Mary prayer, one must go back to the early moments of the history of the Church. Devotion to the Virgin has only grown richer over the centuries. This rich history can be summarized by a few important dates that will help us better understand the prayer of the rosary. 

 

  

The origin of the “Hail Mary”

• From the first months of the Church: The Virgin Mary is presented as the mother of Christ and she is prayed to as the mother of the Savior.

 

• 3rd century: The first words of the Hail Mary are made up of the words of the archangel Gabriel during the announcement. These words are in the bible. 

 

• 9th century: The Hail Mary prayer is completed by adding other words found in the Bible. They take up the words of Saint Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, during the visitation. 

The invention of Marian prayer

• 11th century : Not all monks could read. They therefore had to find a way to recite the services throughout the day. The monks knew that the bible was composed of 150 psalms. Psalms are prayers recited by monks during services. So they replaced the psalms with a Hail Mary. So they recited 150 Hail Mary’s daily. This first rosary was therefore called the “Psalter of Mary.”
  

 

• Approximately in 1214: Saint Dominic received the rosary from the hands of the Blessed Virgin. The Virgin asked Saint Dominic to teach his contemporaries this prayer, also called “The Psalter of Mary.”

 

• 1460: Brother Alain de la Roche followed in the footsteps of the holy founder of his religious order (Saint Dominic). He defended a thesis in theology on the importance of the prayer of the confession of Maria. From this date, this Dominican brother began to travel around France and neighboring countries to spread the prayer of the rosary.

 

• 1470: Brother Alain de la Roche founded the first brotherhood of the rosary. Through his various preaching trips, this Dominican spread the prayer of the rosary in several places in Douai and Flanders, for example.

 

• 15th century: Dominic of Prussia createdthe clausulae to help enter into the contemplation of the mystery in progress by inserting the name of Jesus. Subsequently, the use of clausulae was taken up and encouraged by Saint John Paul II.

Approval and Teaching by the Church

• 1479: Pope Sixtus IV approved the prayer of the rosary. From that year on, the popes began to write different documents to encourage the devotion of the rosary. 

 

• October 7, 1571: Victory of Lepanto. Christianity was saved from the threat of the Turks near Greece. The Catholic fleet destroyed the Turkish fleet. The Pope Saint Pius V prayed in Rome for this victory by reciting the Marian prayer with the Confraternities of the Rosary. Since this victory, October 7 has become the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. 

 

• 1572: The Pope Saint Pius V established the 15 mysteries that make up the Rosary. The  joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries.

 

• 11 February 1858: The Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette at the cave of Lourdes. At the first apparition, the Virgin Mary was silent and held a rosary in her hand. Bernadette followed the example of the Beautiful Lady.

 

• 1826: Pauline Jaricot starts the living rosary. Through this initiative, she wanted to give the souls of her contemporaries the taste of prayer and faith after the disaster of the French Revolution. Groups of 15 people ware formed to pray a decade of the rosary daily. So at the end of each day, the group recited the rosary!

 

• September 1, 1883: During his pontificate, Pope Leo XIII published eleven encyclicals on the Rosary. The first is called Supremi apostolatus. This encyclical talks about the Holy Rosary and explains the reason for the consecration of the year 1883 to the Rosary.

 

• September 8, 1893: A new encyclical on the rosary is published: Laetitiae sanctae. In this document, Pope Leo XIII recommends the prayer of the rosary.

 

• September 5, 1898: Pope Leo XIII publishes his latest encyclical on the Rosary. It is called Diuturni Temporis. This text is very brief and recalls the importance of the other encyclicals on the rosary and the work done by its predecessors.

 

• May 13th, 1917: The Virgin Mary appears to the three shepherds in Fatima, Portugal. The witnesses had always prayed the Rosary together. The Blessed Virgin encouraged them to continue, because through different prophecies, she explained what would happen in the future if we neglected prayer and turned away from God. 

 

• 1959: During his pontificate, Pope John XXIII spoke several times about the power of the rosary by encouraging the faithful to discover it or rediscover it. He requested that the rosary be prayed during the period of the council between 1959 and 1963. He also confided that he prayed a decade of his rosaries for newborns every day.

 

• February 2, 1974: Shortly after the end of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI issued an apostolic exhortation to encourage family prayer of the rosary. He explained that the council worked on the origin of the rosary and all the benefits that flowed from it. He wanted all the faithful to be able to experience it.

 

• October 16, 2002 : John Paul II publishes an apostolic letter speaking of his love for the prayer of the rosary: Rosarium Virginis Mariae. He also encourages the Catholic faithful to address the Virgin with this prayer. He also explains that he adds 5 mysteries to complete the already existing meditations. He calls these the luminous mysteries.

 

• October 2002 - October 2003 : The Polish pope also took advantage of the publication of Rosarium Virginis Mariae to proclaim the year of the rosary. He wished to invite all the faithful to “contemplate the face of Christ with Mary.”

 

Pray the rosary with Hozana and the Rosario app

With Hozana, you can participate in different prayer communities and thus discover or rediscover the prayer of the rosary. This month-long itinerary will allow you to learn how to pray the Rosary through the different mysteries that make up the Rosary. You can also meditate on the rosary with texts written by Saint John Paul II, who was a fervent apostle of the Virgin.

If you want to pray the rosary without being alone, you can download the Rosario application which will allow you to join a group and recite a decade of the rosary daily.