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 ROSARY

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ROSARY

ing the origin of this devotion of Our Lady's Psalter which prevailed down to the end of the fifteenth century, as well as the early diversity of practice in the manner of its recitation. These facts agree ill with the supposition that it took its rise in a definite revelation and was jealously watched over from the beginning by one of the most learned and influential of the religious orders. No doubt can exist that the immense diffusion of the Rosary and its confraterni- ties in modern times and the vast influence it has exercised for good are mainly due to the labours and the prayers of the sons of St. Dominic, but the his- torical evidence serves plainly to show that their interest in the subject was only awakened in the last years of the fifteenth century.

That the Rosary is pre-eminently the prayer of the people adapted alike for the use of simple and learned is proved not only by the long series of papal utterances by which it has been commended to the faithful but by the daily experience of all who are famiUar with it. The objection so often made against its "vain repetitions" is felt by none but those who have failed to realize how entirely the spirit of the exercise lies in the meditation upon the fundamental mysteries of our faith. To the initiated the words of the angelical salutation form only a sort of half- conscious accompaniment, a bourdon which we may liken to the "Holy, H0I3-, Holy" of the heavenly choirs and surely not in itself meaningless. Neither can it be necessary to urge that the freest criticism of the historical origin of the devotion, which involves no point of doctrine, is compatible with a full ap- preciation of the devotional treasures which this pious exercise brings within the reach of all.

As regards the origin of the name, the word rosamis means a garland or iDouquet of roses, and it was not unfrequently used in a figurative sense — e.g. as the title of a book, to denote an anthology or collection of extracts. An early legend which after travelling all over Europe penetrated even to Abyssinia con- nected this name with a story of Our Lady, who was seen to take rosebuds from the lips of a young monk when he was reciting Hail Marys and to weave them into a garland which she placed upon her head. A German metrical version of this story is still ex- tant dating from the thirteenth century. The name "Our Lady's Psalter" can also be traced back to the same period. Corona or chdplct suggests the same idea as rosarium. The old English name found in Chaucer and elsewhere was a "pair of beads", in which the word heads (q.v.) originally meant prayers.

A vast literature has grown up around the Rosary devotion, but from a historical point of view the older books are almost all quite uncritical. The best representatives of a devotional and conservative treatment are: Esser, Unserer lieben Frauen Rosenkranz (Paderborn, 1889); Ch^ry, Thiologie du Rosaire (Paris, 1869); Proctor, The Rosary Guide (London, 1901); De BcsciiiiRE, Rosaire de Marie (Lille, 1901); Mother Loyola, Hail Full 0/ Grace (London, 1902); Meschler, Rosengarten u. L. Frauen (Freiburg, 1902); Leikes, Rosa Aurea (Dulmen, 1886).

The critical discussion of the Rosary tradition was first seri- ously undertaken by the Bollandist Cuypers in the Acta Sanc- torum for 4 August. In modern times it has been continued by Thurston in The Month (Oct., 1900, to April, 1901; Sep., 1902; July, 1903; May and June, 1908, etc.); and Holzapfel, S. Do- minikus und der Rosenkranz (Munich, 1903). Very valuable con- tributions to the history of the subject have been made by Esser, Zur Arch&ologie der Paternosler-Schnur, in Compte rendu of the Catholic International Congress (Fribourg, 1897); Idem in Der Katholik (Mainz, Oct., Nov., and Dec, 1897), and also in a series of articles which appeared at intervals in the same period- ical from 1904 to 1906. An important little historical essay is that of ScHMiTZ, Das Rosenkranzgebet im 15. und in Anfange des 16. Jahrhunderts (Fribourg, 1903). See also Beissel in Geschxchte der Verehrung Marias in Deutschland wdhrend des Mittelalters (Freiburg, 1909). Replies to the criticisms of the Rosary tradition have been made by Mamachi, Annates Ord. Prcedicatorum, I (Rome, 1756), 317-44. Danzas, Etudes si:r les temps primififs, IV (Paris, 1864), 363 sq.; Walsh in The Irish Rosary (Dublin, Dec, 1900, to July, 1901). The principal papal documents connected with the Rosary will be found in the Acta S. Sedis,. . pro Societate SS. Rosarii (4 vols., Lyons, 1891).

Herbert Thurston.

IL In the Greek Church, Uniat and Schis- matic. — The custom of reciting prayers upon a string with knots or beads thereon at regular intervals has come down from the early days of Christianity, and is still practised in the Eastern as well as in the Western Church. It seems to have originated among the early monks and hermits who used a piece of heavy cord with knots tied at intervals upon which they recited their shorter prayers. This form of rosary is still used among the monks in the various Greek Churches, although archimandrites and bishops use a very ornamental form of rosary with costly beads. The rosary is conferred upon the Greek monk as a part of his investiture with the viandyaa or full monastic habit, as the second step in the mo- nastic life, and is called his "spiritual sword". This Oriental form of rosary is known in the Hellenic Greek Church as Ko/j.po\6ytop (chap let), or Kofx^oaxoivtov (string of knots or beads), in the Russian Church as vervitza (string), chotki (chaplet), or liestovka (ladder), and in the Rumanian Church as m&tanie (reverence). The first use of the rosary in any general way was among the monks of the Orient. Our everyday name of "beads" for it is simply the Old Saxon word bede (a prayer) which has been transferred to the instru- ment used in reciting the prayer, while the word rosary is an equally modern term. The intercourse of the Western peoples of the Latin Rite with those of the Eastern Rite at the beginning of the Crusades caused the practice of saying prayers upon knots or beads to become widely diffused among the monastic houses of the Latin Church, although the practice had been observed in some instances before that date. On the other hand, the recitat ion of the Rosary, as practised in the West, has not become general in the Eastern Churches; there it has still retained its original form as a mona.stic exercise of devotion, and is but little known or used among the laity, while even the secular clergy seldom use it in their devo- tions. Bishops, however, retain the rosary, as indi- cating that they have risen from the monastic state, even though they are in the world governing their dioceses.

The rosary used in the present Greek Orthodox Church — whether in Russia or in the East — is quite different in form from that used in the Latin Church. The use of the prayer-knots or prayer-beads origi- nated from the fact that monks, according to the rule of St. Basil, the only monastic rule known to the Greek Rite, were enjoined by their founder to "pray without cea.sing" (I Thess., v, 17; Luke, xviii, 1), and as most of the early monks were laymen, engaged often in various forms of work and in many cases without sufficient education to read the pre- scribed lessons, psalms, and prayers of the daily oflice, the rosary was used by them as a means of contin- ually reciting their prayers. At the beginning and at the end of each prayer said by the monk upon each knot or bead he makes the "great reverence" {■/) fteydX-n fierdvoia), bending down to the ground, so that the recitation of the rosary is often known as a melania. The rosary used among the Greeks of Greece, Turkey, and the East usually consists of one hundred beads vnthout any distin(tion of great or little ones, while the Old Slavic, or Russian, rosary generally consists of 103 beads, separated in irreg- ular sections by four large beads, so that the first large bead is followed by 17 small ones, the second large bead by 3.3 small ones, the third by 40 small ones, and the fourth by 12 small ones, with an addi- tional one added at the end. The two ends of a Russian rosary are often bound together for a short distance, so that the fines of beads run i)arallel (henc(» the name ladder used for the rosary), and they finish with a three-cornered ornament often adorned with a tassel or other finial, corresponding to the cross or medal used in a Latin rosary.