The Greatest Marian Prayer

A further element of the development of the Rosary is the Marian Psalter. In the Marian Psalter one hundred and fifty Hail Marys were recited by the laity to model the one hundred and fifty psalms prayed by monks in the Psalter, or "Divine Office." The use of beads was incorporated for the counting of the prayers in an effort to incorporate the laity (the vast majority of whom were illiterate), into praying the liturgical prayer of the clergy and religious. This Our Father and Hail Mary-based prayer form became known as "Our Lady’s Psalter," or the "Marian Psalter."

After this initial inspiration of the Rosary from the Blessed Virgin to St. Dominic, the structure of the Rosary went through a period of gradual development from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, where the specific Rosary mysteries used by the faithful appear to have gone through a process of historical development. At given times in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, up to one hundred and fifty mysteries were meditated upon during the reciting of one hundred and fifty Hail Marys (in some cases having one specific mystery for each Hail Mary). Gradually, the number of mysteries was reduced from as many as one hundred and fifty down to fifteen. The first clear historical example of what is basically the Rosary form used today is found in the mid-fifteenth century writings of Alan of Rupe, O.P., also known as Alan de la Roche, (d.1475). (13) Alan of Rupe was a great Dominican propagator of the Rosary devotion and a significant historical force in restoring the practice of the Rosary to the faithful. (14)

In the 1569 Apostolic Constitution, Consueverunt Romani Pontifices, Pope St. Pius V, a Dominican pope, officially approved what is the basic Rosary prayer form of today. By the time of the 1569 official papal approval, the second part of the Hail Mary, an ecclesial prayer added during this same general historical period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, was also present.

Two years later, before the historic Battle of Lepanto in 1571, when a Muslim Turkish naval fleet threatened the Western Christian empire and Western civilization, Pope St. Pius V called upon the Christian world to pray the Rosary to aid the smaller Christian naval fleet against the massive Muslim fleet. The miraculous victory of the Christian fleet was directly attributed by St. Pius V to "Our Lady of Victory" and the powerful effects of praying the Rosary.

The only substantial change to the Rosary’s fundamental structure since the sixteenth century occurred in 2002, when Pope John Paul II introduced the new set of Luminous Mysteries to the existing Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, (15) which positively adds the key event of Our Lord’s public ministry to the Rosary’s Gospel Meditations. The addition of the Luminous Mysteries fills in the historical gap in the life of Jesus from his childhood finding in the Temple (last Joyful Mystery) to the initiation of his Passion with the Agony in the Garden (first Sorrowful Mystery). As Pope John Paul explains:

What is essential to the structure of the Rosary, as discussed by Pius V in granting the indulgence for the praying of the Rosary, (17) is the praying of the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys with vocal prayer (at least the word formation by the lips) while meditating on the Gospel mysteries. Over time and in diverse cultures, several prayers have been added to the Rosary by the faithful. In several countries (including France, parts of Germany and the United States), the Rosary begins with the Sign of the Cross, the Apostles’ Creed, an Our Father, three Hail Marys (oftentimes prayed for an increase in the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity), and a Glory Be. This is not always the universal practice, however. In several Spanish-speaking countries, the Rosary ends with these same prayers.

The praying of the Glory Be to the Holy Trinity at the end of each decade may have been an effort to imitate the praying of the psalms of the Divine Office, which end with this same prayer of Trinitarian praise.

At the end of each decade various additional prayers have also been recited by the faithful. Presently, the most universal prayer added to the end of each decade is the one requested by the Virgin Mary during her 1917 apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. During her third apparition of July 13, 1917, the Blessed Mother appeared under the title of "Our Lady of the Rosary" and asked that the following basic prayer be said at the end of each decade: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of thy mercy." Many of the faithful from around the world permanently incorporated this prayer request from Our Lady of Fatima at the end of each Rosary decade.

The Salve Regina or "Hail, Holy Queen," a majestic prayer to Mary as our Advocate, Queen, and Mother of Mercy, has been attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d.1153) or to one his contemporaries. The Hail Holy Queen is normally prayed at the end of five decades of the Rosary.

We see then that the Rosary is the fruit of a peaceful combination of both heavenly inspiration and historical human development as prayed and practiced by the living Church.

Essential Qualities of the Rosary

The Rosary Is Scriptural

The Rosary is by nature a scriptural prayer. Pope Paul VI refers to the Rosary as "the compendium of the entire Gospel." (18)

The twenty mysteries of the Rosary comprise the best possible summary of the Gospel events of the Lord. They start at the beginning of the New Testament salvation history with the Annunciation (Lk 1:26) and recall each central Gospel mystery of Our Lords’ infancy, public ministry, passion, and redemptive victory, ending with its glorious effects for the Mother of Christ, that of her Coronation in Heaven (Rev 12:1). The mysteries of the Rosary provide a sublime but succinct summary of the greatest Gospel mysteries contained in the New Testament.

Beyond the scriptural nature of the Rosary mysteries, the specific prayers of the Rosary are also essentially scriptural. The Our Father is the celestial prayer revealed by Jesus Christ in answer to the request of the disciples to "teach us how to pray" (Lk 11:1ff; Mt 6:7ff). The Our Father is the perfect prayer of praise and petition revealed by God the Son made man.

The Hail Mary, for centuries called the "Angelic Salutation," is also fundamentally a scriptural prayer. The first part of the Hail Mary is a joining together of two scriptural greetings to the Blessed Virgin: one to Mary by the Angel Gabriel, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28); and the second by her cousin Elizabeth, "blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Lk 1:42). With the additions of the names of Jesus and Mary, these two scriptural greetings to Mary comprised the essence of the Hail Mary for at least the first twelve centuries.

During the Middle Ages, (19) the Church added the second part of the Hail Mary, the ecclesial prayer to the Mother of God beseeching her intercession for "us sinners," "now," and "at the hour of our death." The second portion of the Hail Mary reflects the humble prayer of sinners for the heavenly aid of the Mother of God in a manner resembling the ancient Sub Tuum prayer. Both Marian prayers reflect Mary’s Divine Motherhood and her extraordinary intercessory power, which are also scripturally based (cf. Gen 3:15; Lk 1:28; Jn 2:1; Jn 19:26).

By means of both its Gospel mysteries and its scripturally based prayers, the Rosary is properly understood as an authentic "compendium of the Gospel." John Paul II confirms the scriptural centrality of the Rosary in Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

The Rosary Is Christ-Centered

Another essential quality of the Rosary is that it is a Christological prayer. By means of the Gospel mysteries and of the prayers themselves, the focus of the Rosary is centered first and foremost on the person and life of Jesus Christ and his Redemption of the human family. As Pope Paul VI explains in his 1974 Marian document, Marialis Cultus:

The great majority of the twenty Rosary mysteries are explicitly dedicated to the life of Jesus. As for the last two mysteries, the Assumption and Coronation of Mary, these mysteries illustrate the application of the graces of the victorious Christ to Mary, the first and greatest disciple of the Lord. In a certain sense, the last two Glorious Mysteries foreshadow what all faithful disciples of the Lord will receive (although to a lesser degree than the Immaculate Mother of God). The Assumption of Mary foreshadows the Resurrection of the Body which all the faithful await on the last day (cf. Mt 22:29ff; Lk 14:14; Jn 6:39). The Coronation of Mary foreshadows the heavenly crown that, as St. Paul tells us, all children of God can expect upon running the race (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-25; 2 Tim 4:8). The last two mysteries therefore are a type of foretaste of what all Christians can expect in due measure when they remain faithful to the first eighteen mysteries of the Lord.