Saint Dominic and The Rosary

Legend has it that in the 13 century St. Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers received the Catholic rosary from the Blessed Virgin as a weapon against the Albigensians heresy.

Seeing that the work of preaching was not bearing fruit Dominic withdrew into the forest, where he prayed continuously for three days and three nights.

During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma. At this point our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said,

"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"

"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation."

Then our Lady replied,

"I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament.

Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."

So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district, he made straight for the cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together, and Saint Dominic began to preach.

At the very beginning of his sermon, an appalling storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid.

Even greater was their fear when, looking at a picture of our Lady exposed in a prominent place, they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the holy Mother of God. God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the holy Rosary and to make it more widely known. At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching.

So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs? In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Blessed Virgins well as by his own experience, Saint Dominic preached the Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons, in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low, before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics. The Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation for every sermon and his little union with our Lady immediately after preaching.

Rosary means a crown of roses, a spiritual bouquet given to the Blessed Mother. It is sometimes called the Dominican Rosary, to distinguish it from other rosary-like prayers (e.g. the Franciscan Rosary of the Seven Joys or Franciscan Crown, the Servite Rosary of the Seven Sorrows). It is also, in a general sense, a form of chaplet or corona (crown), of which there are many varieties in the Church. Finally, in English it has been called "Our Lady's Psalter" or "the beads." This last derives from an Old English word for prayers (bede) and to request (biddan or bid).

The place of the revelation was the church of Prouille and the time was 1208. The claim of place and time are most strongly supported by the tradition of the Dominican Order. Pope Leo XIII affirmed over and over the Dominican origin of the Rosary and in a letter to the Bishop of Carcassone (1889), he accepts the tradition of Prouille as the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic, revealing this devotion. The tradition that Mary first revealed the Rosary devotion to St. Dominic is supported by 13 popes.

St. Dominic went into the villages of the heretics, gathered the people, and preached to them the mysteries of salvation - the Incarnation, the Redemption, Eternal Life. As the Holy Virgin had taught him to do, he distinguished the different kinds of mysteries and after each short instruction he had ten Hail Marys recited. St. Dominic found great success in this new devotion, bringing about the conversion of the Albigensians. The late Dominican Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, who was a teacher of Pope John Paul II when he was a student at the Angelicum in Rome, stated: "Our Blessed Lady made known to St. Dominic a kind of preaching till then unknown; which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties."

The battle of Muret was fought in 1213 between the Catholic forces, led by Simon de Montfort and the Albigenses forces, led by Raymond of Toulouse. The Catholic forces were in the habit of praying the Rosary, at the suggestion of St. Dominic. The Catholic force won the battle of Muret, looked upon the victory as miraculous, and counted it as the fruit of prayer. The English Dominican historian, Nicholas Trivet wrote, "St. Dominic warred by prayer, De Montfort by arms. The first chapel in honor of the Rosary was built, out of gratitude, by Simon de Montfort in the town of Muret."

The Confraternity of the Rosary was first started by St. Dominic in Palencia in 1218. It's members pray the 15 decades of the Rosary during the coarse of each week. Mary has confirmed the value of the Confraternity in her well-known Rosary promises: "I have obtained from my Son that all the members of the Confraternity have in life and in death all the Blessed as their associates." Pope Clement VIII declared that St. Dominic established the Confraternity of the Rosary in the Church of St. Sixtus in Rome. Pope Alexander VI in 1495, addressed St. Dominic as "the renowned preacher long ago of the Confraternity of the Rosary, and through his merits, the whole world was preserved from universal ruin." The Confraternity retained its first fervor for 100 years after it was instituted by St. Dominic. After this, it was forgotten. Divine Providence assigned the restoration of it to the eminent French Dominican theologian and preacher, Alan de la Roche. During the 15th century, this son of St. Dominic restored the Rosary to its former vitality.

On October 7, 1571, members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Rome, processed praying the Rosary for a blessing on the Christian fleet fighting the Turks at Lepanto. Pope St. Pius V, a Dominican, joined them, and God revealed to him that Mary had at that hour obtained a glorious victory for the Christian fleet. This great victory saved Europe from the Mohammedan peril.

Pope Pius XI stated that the Rosary of Mary is, as it were, the principle and foundation on which the very Order of St. Dominic rests for making perfect the life of its members and obtaining the salvation of others. The Catholic Church looks to the Dominicans as official promoters of the Rosary.

Over the centuries, inspired by the teachings of St. Dominic and his followers, especially the Blessed Alain de Roche and St. Louis de Montford, the Holy Rosary has become the most beloved and popular of all Catholic devotions. It has long been associated with innumerable miracles of faith and healing.

Members of the Dominican religious order still wear a rosary on the left side of their belts, "the same place a knight would wear a sword," Hutcherson said. But that's a romantic history; the real story is more complicated. Prayer beads probably came into Christianity from Islam in the Middle Ages, he said. At that time, few people - not even most monks - could read, so the church had to find other means of helping people remember Scripture stories.

The Dominicans developed 15 themes and stories from the lives of Jesus and Mary. They divided these stories into groups of five, which they call the "joyful mysteries" of his birth and childhood, the "sorrowful mysteries" of his trial and crucifixion and the "glorious mysteries" of his resurrection and ascension into heaven. That helped pattern the rosary.

Pray the Rosary! 

15 Promises Made by the Blessed Virgin to St. Dominic and Blessed Alanus

1.            To those who faithfully recite my Rosary, I promise my special protection and very great graces.

2.            Those who persevere in recitating my Rosary shall receive signal graces.

3.            The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it shall destroy vice, free from sin, and dispel heresy.

4.            It shall make virtue and good works flourish, and shall obtain for souls abundant divine mercies; it will lift our hearts to desire heavenly and eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!

5.            Those who trust themselves to me through reciting the Rosary, shall not perish.

6.            Those who will recite my Rosary piously, devoutly considering its Mysteries, shall not be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise the sinner who is converted; he shall grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life.

7.            Those truly devoted to my Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church, or without grace.

8.            Those who faithfully recite my Rosary shall find during their life and at their death the light of God, the fullness of His grace, and shall share in the merits of the blessed in paradise.

9.            I shall quickly deliver from purgatory those souls who have been devoted to reciting my Rosary.

10.        The true children of my Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

You shall obtain all you ask for for while reciting my Rosary.