Codex Rosarii Cartusiani

The History of the Carthusian Rosary

Portal :

A Tactic of the Carthusian Weapon can be found here on this other Archive : https://www.lifeofchristrosary.com/.

Lore :

Formation and Anatomy of the Hail Mary :

The Carthusian Rosary developed off of the primitive practice of reciting the Marian Psalter, which was merely 150 Angelic Salutations, straight from the Holy Gospel of Luke : Hail, full of grace ; the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb. The Marian Psalter, or Angelic Psalter, came into common use around the early 1100s, as a substitution for the common Psalter, or Paternoster, composed of 150 Our Fathers. The Holy Mary prayer, from the Council of Ephesus in 431, was frequently added to it. However, the Carthusian Rosary did not strictly integrate it as the Dominican Rosary did.

This era was a period of heightened Marian devotion, especially through the preaching of the Mellifluous Doctor, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. Saint Bernard explicated profoundly on Mary's role in our salvation, especially as CoRedemptrix at the Foot of the Cross and Mediatrix of All Graces, for which reason She is invoked in the Salve Regina, most likely composed by Saint Bernard himself, as "our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope". Likely by his influence, the Salve Regina! or Hail, Holy Queen! was also added to the Angelic Psalter to be said at the end.

By the time of Saint Thomas of Aquinas, our Lady's Name had been added, as evident in his Reverence's writings. In the early 1400s, when Saint Bernardine of Siena traveled through Italy, preaching devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, our Lord's Name was also added at the end of the prayer, as it is today.

Thus, the five parts of the Hail Mary :

The Holy Archangel Gabriel salutes : Hail, full of grace ; the Lord is with Thee! Blessed art Thou among women! (Lk. i.28)
Saint Elisabeth then salutes : Blessed art Thou among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb! (Lk i.42)
The Council of Ephesus (431) proclaims : Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
The Holy Name of Mary is likely propagated in the 1100s by the influence of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist.
The Holy Name of Jesus is propagated in the 1400s by the influence of Saint Bernardine of Siena, O.F.M.

In this form, Saint Pope Pius V, O.P., promulgated the Hail Mary in 1568.

Formation of the Carthusian Rosary :

The Rosary Beads were originally collections of pebbles or whatever else was useful, held in bags. Monks would use these to pray a certain number of prayers, until the use of strung beads became more common and available. In fact, bede in Middle English is the word for prayer or Rosary. Sometimes the Rosary is referred to therefrom as the Beads.

In that time, Saint Dominic began preaching the Angelic Psalter, but, since the Internet did not work very well in the early Renaissance, customs, traditions, and methods of praying the Rosary varied (including the other Rosary Tactics here in the Archivum Rosarianum). Moreover, the history of the Holy Rosary is difficult to place, because there was a bit of revelation on the one hand, and a lot of ordinary side development on the other. Most likely these processes coincided with each other as man responded to God, until the current method of praying the Rosary was further solidified. This method refers to the 15 Decades of the Rosary with a Salve Regina at the end, while the Common Introduction recited before the Decades seems to have been added later. Thus, the Common Tactic of the Rosary as we know it today varies slightly, but not viciously, from the original Tactic as Saint Dominic would have received it, which the Dominican Order still uses to this day. Both may be found in the Codex Ordinis Praedicatorum.

Thus, likely parallel with the preaching of the Dominicans, in 1365, Henry of Kalkar also broke up the Angelic Psalter into 15 decades and placed an Our Father before each one. Around the mid-1400s, the Carthusians Adolf of Essen and the mystic Dominic of Prussia, his novice, created the Life of Christ Rosary, which was composed in two forms, one with 50 Salutations and the other with 150. Rather than the 15 Mysteries of the Dominicans, Dom Dominic of Prussia developed a Rosary with 50 Mysteries, each Mystery having an individual Salutation. Together, these Mysteries accompany the whole Life of Jesus, and hence it was called the Life of Christ Rosary. These 50 Salutations were grouped into decades, regarding His Birth, His Youth and Public Ministry, His Passion, His Crucifixion, and His Resurrection. Because the Life of Christ Rosary, or Carthusian Rosary, retained the ancient formula of the Angelic Salutation rather than its final form of 1568, the second part of the Hail Mary is only optional, and the introductory and concluding prayers to the whole Rosary are slightly different.

The Carthusian Ave :

An example of a Mystery in the Carthusian Rosary follows. These Mysteries are meant to be savored, and so the orant (person praying, the pray-er) should hover over or repeat the same Salutation for as often or long as helpful. The full Tactic can be found on the link above. There are 50 Mysteries / Salutations.

Hail Mary, full of grace ; the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus, to Whom Thou, perpetually Virgin in body and soul, joyfully gave birth. (Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.) Amen.

Some Carthusians also wear a 6-Decade Rosary on their belts with white beads, like what Mary held at Lourdes, not because they pray the 6-Decade Rosary of the Immaculate Conception, but because it is more symmetrical for them to have on their cinctures.