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Codex Rosarii Praedicatorum

The History of the Dominican Rosary

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Charity to offer any new information or correction to this and to any other Codex, Appendix, and/or otherwise on this Archivum. God reward you!

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Brief :

The Dominican Rosary is the Rosary most commonly known and prayed, having 15 Central, Cardinal, and Traditional Mysteries, often prayed in 3 Chaplets of 5 Decades. The 3 Cardinal Chaplets are the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, which together depict the 3 Main Events of Jesus' Life and their surrounding events.

 

The Mysteries of Faith, however, are inexhaustible, and so, for the benefit of the Faithful, other Mysteries exist to reveal further our Lord's Life, Death, and Resurrection. Frequently added to the original 15 are the Luminous Mysteries of Saint Pope John Paul II, and some privately pray other Mysteries to further know, love, and serve Jesus and Mary.

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Common Tactic :

After the Sign of the Cross or Deus + in adjutorium :

Introduction :

  1. The Apostles’ Creed.

  2. Our Father. (For our Holy Father Pope Leo / pro Summo Pontifice nostro Leone)

  3. Hail Mary. 3 times. (For a growth in Faith. ...Hope. ...Charity. / pro augmento Fidei. ...Spei. ...Caritatis.)

  4. Glory Be.

For Each Decade :

  1. Announce the Mystery.

  2. Our Father.

  3. Hail Mary. 10 times.

  4. Glory Be.

  5. The Fatima Prayer.

Conclusion :

  1. Hail, Holy Queen!

  2. V/ Pray for us, o holy Mother of God. R/ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  3. Optional : Let us pray : O God, Whose only begotten Son, by His Life, Death, and Resurrection, hath purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating on these Mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Dominican Tactic :

Dominicans pray a more ancient form of the Holy Rosary that imitates the Divine Office. Prayed in common, the contingent is split into 2 choirs (C1 and C2), and 1 person (H) will lead the recitation in general.

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The Dominicans do not pray the Fatima Prayer, but it may certainly be added as to the Common Tactic.

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​H/ In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

C/ Amen.

H/ Hail Mary, full of grace...

C/ Holy Mary, Mother of God... Amen.

H/ O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips,

C/ And my mouth shall proclaim Thy Praise.

H/ O God, + come to mine assistance.

C/ Lord, make haste to help me.

H/ Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

C/ As it was in the beginning is now and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia! 

During Lent : Praise to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!

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For the Odd Decades :

  1. H/ Announces the Mystery. 

  2. C1/ Our Father...

  3. C2/ ...Give us this day our daily bread... Amen.

  4. C1/ Hail Mary...

  5. C2/ ...Holy Mary... Amen. 10 times.

  6. C1/ Glory to the Father...

  7. C2/ ...As it was...forever. Amen.

  8. Optional : The Fatima Prayer.

The Even Decades are prayed similarly, but C1 and C2 switch.

 

Conclusion :

  1. H/ Let us pray :

  2. C/ Hail, Holy Queen!

  3. H/ Pray for us, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.

  4. C/ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  5. H/ Let us pray :

  6. C/ O God, Whose only begotten Son, by His Life, Death, and Resurrection, hath purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating on these Mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

  7. H/ May the Divine Assistance remain always with us.

  8. C/ And may the souls of the Faithfully departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace.

  9. H if a Priest/ And may the peace and blessing of Almighty God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever.

  10. H if not a Priest/ And may Almighty God bless us, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

  11. C/ Amen.

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​H/ In Nomine Patris, + et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.

C/ Amen.

H/ Ave Maria...

C/ Sancta Maria... Amen.

H/ Domine, labia mea aperies,

C/ Et os meum annuntiabit Laudem Tuam.

H/ Deus + in adjutorium meum intende.

C/ Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.

H/ Gloria Patri...

C/ Sicut erat... Amen. Alleluia! 

From Septuagesima Sunday inclusive : Laus Tibi, Domine, Rex aeternae gloriae!

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For the Odd Decades :

  1. H/ Announces the Mystery. 

  2. C1/ Pater noster...

  3. C2/ ...Panem nostrum quotidianum... Amen.

  4. C1/ Ave Maria...

  5. C2/ ...Sancta Maria... Amen. 10 times.

  6. C1/ Gloria Patri...

  7. C2/ ...Sicut erat... Amen.

  8. Optional : The Fatima Prayer.

The Even Decades are prayed similarly, but C1 and C2 switch.

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Conclusio : 

  1. H/ Oremus :

  2. C/ Salve Regina!

  3. H/ Ora pro nobis, Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii.

  4. C/ Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

  5. H/ Oremus :

  6. C/ Deus, Cujus Unigenitus, per Vitam, Mortem, et Resurrectionem Suam, nobis salutis aeternae praemia comparavit, concede quaesumus : ut haec Mysteria Sacratissimo Beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes, et imitemur quod continent, et quod promittunt assequamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.​​

  7. H/ Divinum Auxilium maneat semper nobiscum.

  8. C/ Et Fidelium animae, per Misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace.

  9. H if a Priest/ Et pax et benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, + et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos et maneat semper..

  10. H if not a Priest/ Et benedicat nos omnipotens Deus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus.

  11. C/ Amen.

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Lore :

Formation and Development

The Official Prayer of the Universal Church is the Divine Office, which is said in 8 segments, or Hours, throughout the day : Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. (This was changed after Vatican II in 1969.) Since Matins and Lauds are meant to be prayed together, this means that, liturgically speaking, there are 7 times in the daily clerical schedule for a choir to gather, which is referenced in Psalm 118.164 [119:164], when the Psalmist proclaims : "Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee, for the judgments of Thy Justice." The Catholic Church has traditionally understood that the Divine Office is the liturgical mode of the prayer of Christ the Son to the Father, in which by praise He appeases the just wrath of the Father and purchases blessings for the Church.

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The Divine Office is recited out of a liturgical book called the Breviary. Historically, books have been extremely expensive, because they were copied by hand and were usually made with very expensive materials. Because such purchases were impossible for most Lay Faithful, many would recite 150 Our Fathers instead, one for each Psalm, thus mystically participating in the Liturgical Prayer to which they had no access. In the early 1100s, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux helped to reinforce Marian devotion and wrote the Hail, Holy Queen! 

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In those days, because of the increase in Marian devotion, some began praying the Angelic Psalter, which was composed of 150 Angelic Salutations. The Angelic Salutation is the first half of the Hail Mary, including the Salutation of Gabriel and the Blessing of Saint Elisabeth. Some people and regions added epithets to our Lord's Name or other parts of the prayer. To the Angelic Salutation was added the Holy Name Jesus, especially by the influence of Saint Bernardine of Siena in the early 1400s, as it is today. The Holy Mary was developed from the Council of Ephesus in 431, rejecting the heresy of Nestorianism by proclaiming that Mary is indeed the Mother of God (Theotokos). The two prayers were joined together and became common practice, and this final form of the Hail Mary was officially promulgated from the Vatican by Saint Pope Pius V, a Dominican, in 1568.​

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At Fatima, Mary also gave the children and the whole Church the Fatima Prayer, which is meant to follow the Minor Doxology at the end of every Decade of the Rosary.​​​

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For additional information about the development of the Holy Rosary, especially the Hail Mary, see the Lore in the Codex Rosarii Cartusiani.

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Apparition to Saint Dominic

A brief synopsis of Saint Louis de Montfort's account in The Secret of the Rosary. 

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In the year 1214, Saint Dominic was sent by the Pope to convert the Cathar heretics in Southern France. Recognizing that Divine help was needed, he withdrew into the forest nearby, fasting and doing penance. After 3 days, Mary appeared to him there, attended by 3 Angels, and said, "Dear Dominic, knowest thou which Weapon the Blessed Trinity wilt use to reform the world?"

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Saint Dominic replied, "O my Lady, Thou knowest far better than I do, for, next to Thy Son Jesus Christ, Thou hast always been the chief instrument of our salvation."

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"I want thee to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram hath always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if thou wantest to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach My Psalter."

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Saint Dominic immediately returned from the woods, and Angels rang the bells of the Cathedral. The people in that town gathered, and storm clouds billowed overhead. The Saint preached to the people, terrified by the ominous storm. In one of the Cathedral's paintings, thrice Mary raised Her arms in warning to those who would not repent. When Saint Dominic begged Her for Mercy, Her wrath abated. By his prayer the storm calmed, and the people listened to his preaching. Thus the people converted, prayed the Rosary, and greatly ceased their sin and heresy. 

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Saint Dominic continued to be a signpost for the Angelic Psalter, starting the Dominican Order in 1215. At one point, Jesus spoke these words to him, which summarize his ministry, passed down to us by a Franciscan scholar, Carthagena : “Dominic, I rejoice to see that thou art not relying upon thy wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men, thou art working with great Humility for the Salvation of souls. But many Priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that, before a sick person is given bitter medicine, he needeth to be prepared by being put in the right frame of mind to really benefit by it. This is why, before doing anything else, Priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of Mine Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God, in His Mercy, could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So I want thee to preach My Rosary.”

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Blessed Alan de la Roche wrote that Mary also appeared to Saint Dominic, telling him, “Urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.”

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Parallel Carthusian Influence

See also the Lore in the Codex Rosarii Cartusiani.

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Throughout the 1300s, certain Carthusians vastly influenced the way the Psalter was prayed. Likely parallel with the preaching of the Dominicans, in 1365, Henry of Kalkar helped introduce the Our Fathers to be said before each decade. 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 had 50 Salutations, and the other had 150. Each Salutation was followed by a different epithet after the Holy Name Jesus, grouped into decades themed after the different parts of Jesus' life. Each decade was preceded by an Our Father and succeeded by a Glory Be.

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The Ministry of Blessed Alan de la Roche

According to Saint Louis de Montfort, many did not heed the call to pray the Rosary, and so a threefold punishment was unhindered. In 1349 came the Black Plague. Secondly, there was an outbreak of gnosticism through the Flagellants, who, in their hatred of the body and all material, encouraged heavy penitential whipping, even to the point of death. Thirdly, the Papal Schism split the Church for 40 years from 1378 to 1417. Therefore, in 1460, Jesus and Mary sent Blessed Alan de la Roche to preach the Rosary once more. By his preaching, the original 15 Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries were spread, and the Psalter, as it was known, was more frequently called the Rose-Garden, Rose-Crown, Rose-Garland, or Rosary.

 

After a life preaching about the Rosary and Marian devotion, Jesus told Blessed Alan, “See the wonderful results I have had through preaching the Holy Rosary! Thou and all those who love Our Lady ought to do the same so that, by means of this holy practice of the Rosary, you may draw all people to the real science of the virtues.”

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The Battle of Lepanto

In 1571, the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire were still jihad-ing to conquer Europe. Vying for the remaining Western Mediterranean Sea, they conquered Cyprus with a pincer movement, enslaving 100s of 1000s of Christians, burning Churches, and depopulating cities. The victory over Cyprus ended when the Mohammedans had prevailed in a siege against the Venetian fortress of Famagusta. The horrible stories that were told of the tortures involved were a great threat to the morale of the Christians in Europe.

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Meanwhile, the Christians in Europe had become divided by the Protestant Revolution. They cared little for Mary and defied the Papacy. Therefore, having an indefinite disunity, the Protestants were busy with other wars and affairs, reducing hope in Europe's survival.

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Therefore, our Mother ordained that Europe’s greatest threat would be defeated by the Bishop of Rome, whose Office, that of Christ Himself, unites us in One Church as we live our exile in the world. Using His Papal influence, Pope Pius V formed a Catholic Coalition between the Spanish Empire, Venice, Genoa, the Papal States, and other Italian sovereignties. Thus the Holy League formed to stop the advancement of the Ottoman Turks, who would soon be able to reach and flood the European mainland, spreading their barbaric civilization. Pope Pius also called on the Confraternities of the Rosary in Rome to pray fervently for the upcoming naval battle.

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The battle came in the Gulf of Patras between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesus. Command of the Holy League's fleet of 206 ships was given to John of Austria in the Holy Roman Empire. The Catholic fleet came across the Ottoman fleet on Sunday, October 7, 1571. With both sides approaching each other, the wind at first hindered the Catholics from forming their ranks. But suddenly at the right time the winds shifted to form the line. By the evening, the Muslims were defeated and left with thrice the casualties. 

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Thus Pope Pius V attributed the victory to the power of the Rosary. Not only was Rome offering their Rosaries for our Lady’s victory, but it is said that the Catholic oarsmen held Rosaries in their hands as the battle was fought on the decks. He made the anniversary of the battle, October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of Victories. Later in 1573, Pope Gregory XIII put the Feast on the 1st Sunday of October and changed its name to the Feast of the Holy Rosary. In 1671, Pope Clement X extended the Feast to all of Spain. Then, in 1716, Pope Clement XI extended the Feast to the entire Church. Finally, in 1913, Saint Pope Pius X restored the Feast to October 7 as a II Class Feast, and in 1969 it was deemed the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, after the Novus Ordo Mass was propagated.

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Modern Apparitions of Mary

Our Lady has come in many apparitions to us especially in the last 2 centuries, including those at Lourdes, Fatima, and Akita. Brief synopses may be found here. In them, Mary has asked us very explicitly to pray the Rosary and do works of penance and reparation. 

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Mysteries of the 3rd Millennium

​In the 3rd Millennium, several other Rosary Chaplets have been generated as options for the Faithful. In 2002, Saint Pope John Paul II recommended the Luminous Mysteries in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary) as an option to the Faithful to encourage devotion to the Seven Sacraments and particularly to the Holy Eucharist.

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For private devotion, there is a set of Hidden Mysteries for meditation on the Life of Mary and Soteriological Mysteries for meditation on the Biblical context of the Redemption of Mankind. Both can be found on this Codex by Fr. Thomas Nathe at Holy Redeemer Parish, writing in 2023.

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There also exist, though the origin is not exactly known, Eschatological Mysteries for meditation on the last days. These are popular in the German-speaking countries, to which Fr. Nathe offers an English form in the page given above. This devotion can also be found in the website below and in the Supplemental Mysteries, according to an older format.

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Currently, a set of Chivalrous Mysteries are being developed, which meditate on the victories of Jesus Christ over the devil and the forces of hell, especially during His public ministry. This Rosary seeks to counteract the indifference and ignorance of the reality of hell, the devil, and the demonic horde. The information thereof may be found on this Archivum of the Rosary Crusade of the 2 Hearts kept by Dr. Daniel Krizan of Austria.

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