RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Boots Rosary
the angelical rosary likewise has thirty-three beads. In the latter, however, the Hail Mary is recited only at the first bead of each decade, the Sanctus, followed by the lesser doxology, being repeated at each of the nine others.
The origin of the name rosary for an object bearing no resemblance whatever to a garland of roses is problematical. Some Roman Catholic authors derive the term from the Virgin's appellation of "mystic rose" in the Church; or from St. Rosalie (twelfth century), who is represented sometimes with a string of beads and sometimes with a crown of gold and roses; or from the roses which, legend says, bloomed on the lips of those who paid true homage to the Virgin and the Angelical Salutation, and which she plucked and twined into a garland about their brows. It is more probable, however, that, in the spirit of the mystic piety of the Middle Ages, the devotion itself was conceived as a garden of roses, each of which, as a separate prayer, unfolded in honor of the Blessed Virgin, especially as this corresponds in meaning with the English "chaplet," Lat. corona ("crown"), etc., asa designation of the rosary or of separate decades of it.
On beginning the rosary the sign of the cross is made, the small cross attached to the center of the string of beads is held, and the Creed, one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Gloria are recited, as they also are on the completion of the devotion. The recitation of the rosary also involves meditation on the five joyful, the five sorrowful,
Mode of and the five glorious mysteries. The Recitation, five joyful mysteries are the annunciation, the visitation, the nativity, the presentation, and the finding of Jesus in the Temple; the five sorrowful mysteries are the agony and bloody sweat of Christ in the garden, the scourging, the crown of thorns, Christ carrying his cross, and the crucifixion; the five glorious mysteries are the resurrection, the ascension, the coming of the Holy Ghost, the assumption of the Virgin, and the coronation of the Virgin. The joys, sorrows, and glories of Mary are thus linked in an ascending scale with the great facts of redemption. The rosary is generally connected with a single group of the mysteries at a time: the joyful mysteries on Mondays and Thursdays, and the Sundays of Advent and from Epiphany to Lent; the sorrowful mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the Sundays in Lent; and the glorious mysteries on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the Sundays from Easter to Advent. A tradition of the Church, first fully developed in the nineteenth century, grants indulgences for the recitation of the rosary. The indulgence attaches, moreover, to individual beads as well as to the entire rosary, and only when more than half are lost at the same time, or when the medal with the picture of the Virgin is mutilated or become unrecognizable, does the indulgence become invalid.
The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary was founded a* Cologne by the famous Dominican Jakob Sprenger in 1475, and was privileged by Sixtus IV. on condition that the rosary be recited on the five great feasts of the Virgin (Purification [Feb. 2]; Annunciation [Mar. 25]; Visitation [July 2]; Assumption [Aug. 15]; and
Nativity [Sept. 8]), as well as on other days, each time with an indulgence of 100 days. Succeeding pontiffs extended the confra- Confrater- ternity and its privileges, and its nity of the prestige was increased during the Holy Turkish wars of the sixteenth century. Rosary. The success of the Christian arms at the battle of Lepanto (Oct. 7, 1571; the first Sunday in October) was attributed to the intercession of the Virgin for the prayers of the confraternity, and Pius V- accordingly made that day the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (transferred by Gregory XIII. in 1583 to its present place, the first Sunday in October). The limitation of the feast, by Gregory XIII., to churches containing a chapel or altar in honor of the rosary was gradually extended by his successors until the Austrian victory at Temesvar on the feast of Our Lady of the Snows (Aug. 5) and the raising of the Turkish siege of Corfu on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Aug. 15) were deemed such conclusive proofs of her power of intercession that Clement XL, in the following year, commanded that the feast be observed throughout Christendom. The members of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary are bound to recite the rosary at least once daily. Recently, however, there has been a tendency to form "Living Rosaries," each of fifteen members, each reciting a decade daily. These fifteen members constitute a "rose," fifteen "roses" a "tree of God," and fifteen "trees of God" a "divine garden of the Blessed Virgin." Leo XIII. was an especially fervent promoter of the devotion of the rosary, no less than eight of his encyclicals touching upon it.
The monks of the Greek Church, particularly on Mount Athos, have a quasi-analogue to the rosary in their kombologion or komboschoinion, a cord with a hundred knots, each of which, when told, must be accompanied with the sign of the cross. Some of the monks of Athos are required to repeat this office twelve times daily, accompanying these 1,200 prayers with 120 genuflections. (O. ZockleeI.)
Bibliography: H. Alt, Das Kirchenjahr des christlichen Morgen- und Abendlandes, pp. 72 sqq., Berlin, 1860; V. Morassi, II Rosario della B. V Maria, Casalis, 1867; M. Chery, La Theologie du saint rosaire, 2 vols., Paris, 1869; K. Martin, Die Schonheiten des Rosenkranzes, Mainz, 1876; H. Duffant, TJne hypothese sur la date et le lieu de Vinstitution du rosaire, Freiburg, 1878; M. Plues, Chats about the Rosary, London, 1881; T. Leikes, Rosa aurea, Diilmen, 1886; L. C. Gay, Entretiens sur le rosaire, 2 vols., Paris, 1887; W. Lescher, The Rosary, its Hist, and Indulgences, London, 1888; idem, St. Dominic and the Rosary, Leicester, 1901; T. Esser, Unserer lieben Frauen Rosenkranz, Paderborn, 1889; A. Konig, Officium des heiligen Rosenkranzes, Breslau, 1890; Acta sanctce sedis . pro societate s. rosarii, 4 vols., Leyden, 1891; T. Esser, in Katholik, 1897, pp. 346 sqq., 409 sqq., 515 sqq.; O. Zockler, Askese und M bnchtum, passim, Frankfort, 1897; S. Knoll, Maria die Kbnigin des Rosenkranzes, oder vollstandige Erklarung der heiligen Rosenkranz Geheimnisse, Regensburg, n.d.; Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, pp. 368-382, New York, n.d. (gives English prayers, meditations, etc.) ; J. J. Roche, Short Explanation of the Rosary, London (Duffy and Co.), n.d.; Canon Ryan, The Holy Rosary, in vol. iv. of Collected Publications, Catholic Truth Society, London, n.d.; Graf Hoensbroech, Das Papsttum in seiner social-kulturellen Wirksamkeit, i. 277— 283, Leipsic, 1901; J. Procter, Rosary Guide for Priests and People, London, 1901; D. Dahm, Die Briiderschaft vom heiligen Rosenkranz, Treves, 1902; H. Holzapfcl, St.
Roscelinus Kosenmueller