Rosa, St. See Rosa of Lima.
Rosa OF Lima, the most noted of Peruvian saints, was a beautiful virgin, born in 1586 at Lima, who earh" displayed great fortitude in the enduring of ])hysical pain, and manifested a strong inclination towards an ascetic life. Her parents permitted her to become a Dominican nun ; but having entered a church to pray while on her way to the convent, she found herself imatile to proceed farther, and consequently became a hermit, living in a cell which she built in the garden
belonging to her parents. She inflicted cruel bodily mortifications on herself, and died in 1617. She was buried in the Dominican church, and was canonized in 1671. She ranks as the patroness of the state, and is an- nually commemorated, with great solemnity and pomp, on Aug. 26. See Acta SS. for Aug. 26.— llerzog, Real- Enci/klop. s. v.
Rosa OF YiTERBO, a hermit attached to the order of Fanciscans, though without having been formally re- ceived. She occupied a cell in the house of her parents, and was accustomed to preach repentance, standing with crucitix in hand in the public streets. She was temporarily banished from Yiterbo, but eventually re- called and received with enthusiasm. She died in A.D. 1252, aged about eighteen. See A eta SS. for Sept. 4. — Herzog, Real-Enryklop. s. v.
Rosa, Salvator, an Italian painter, was born at Aranella, near Naples, June 20, 1615. He was brought up under Francisco Francanzano, but was obliged to get his living by selling his pictures ujion the street. Af- ter his father's death, he went with Ribera to Rome, at which city he remained four years, when cardinal Hran- cacci carried him to Yiterbo, where he painted several pieces. He afterwards went with Prince John Charles of Medici to Florence, and stayed nine years in this city. He finally fixed his residence al Rome, where he died, March 15, 1673. Among his most celebrated works are, the Catiline Conspiracy: — Saul and the Witch of En- dor: — A ttilus Reyulus, and altar-pieces. He was also a good composer of music. See lady Morgan, Life and Times of Salvator (Lond. 1824, 2 vols.) ; Cantu, Sidvator Rosa (Milan, 1844) ; Reynolds [Sir Joshua], Works.
Rosalia, St., the greatest of Sicilian saints, is said to have died between 1160 and 1180. Her father was the count Sinibald of Quisqnina and Rosis. and was de- scended from the ancient kings of Sicily. She lived for a time on ]Mount Quiscpiina in the character of a hermit, but afterwards on JMoiuu. Pelegrino, near Palermo. It is alleged that her body was found in 1624, together with an inscription on Mount Qiiisquina narrating her descent and sojourn in an adjoining cave. A pestilence ceased to prevail at the time her body was found, and this fact was attributed to her intercessions, which may account for the veneration she receives. Her day is Sept. 4, and is observed with much pomp in Palermo, one of the features being a procession in which a colos- sal statue of the saint is carried about. See Acta SS. for Sept. 4. — Herzog, Real-EnryUop. s. v.
Rosario, Jerome, an Italian ecclesiastic and writer, was born at Pordenone in 1485. He was nuncio from pope Clement YII to Hungary, and died in 1556. He wrote a curious treatise — Quod Animulia Bruta sa>pe Ratione utantur melius Ilomine (" That brutes often rea- son better than man" [1648]).
Rosary (Rosa?-ium). This is a Roman Catholic instrument, composed of a number of larger and smaller beads strung on a cord, which serves among Romanists to aid in the repeating of a definite number of Pater- nosters and Ave-iMarias. In its wider meaning the word denotes the worship in which the rosary is em- ployed. The custom of repeating the Lord's Prayer a number of times originated among the earlj' hermits and monks, and it is stated by Palladius (AnvaiaKci, cap. 35) and Sozomen (Hist, vi, 29) that the abbot Paul of the desert of Pherme repeated the Pater-noster 300 times, and at each repetition dropped a small stone into his lap. The Hail-Mary was added in the 11th cen- tury, but did not attain its completed form until the 16th. A combination of the Lord's Prayer with the Credo and the angelical greeting in this worship occurs as early as 1196 in the Statutu Communia of bishop Odo of Paris.
The rosary is accordingly of modern origin, and all opinions which assign to it a high antupiity are false. Some modern inquirers hold that it was brought from
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the East by returning Crusaders, since it is found among Mohammedans and Brahmins also; but it would seem to have had an independent origin in the West as well. It was first used by the Dominican monks, though it is by no means certain that it was introduced by St. Dom- inic himself.
As many as twenty forms of rosary devotions have been enumerated by Schulting in his Bibl. Eccles. I. iii, 205. The more familiarly known are as follows:
1. The complete (or Dominican) rosary, consisting of fifteen decades of small Mary-beads, alternating with fifteen Pater-noster beads, so that ten Hail-Marj's are said after each Lord's Prayer. This rosary is accord- ingly called the Psulteriiun Marice.
'1. The ordinary rosary (rosaruuti) has five decades of Mary-beads and five Pater-noster beads, in all fifty- five beads. Three repetitions equal rosary No. 1.