The History of Rosary Meditation

The history of Rosary meditation dates back to the nineth century. Monks would recite and chant the one hundred and fifty Psalms of the bible as the main part of their worship.

It is a form of meditation and prayer. People living near the monastries were drawn their harmonious devotion and became very keen to join in with the monks' prayers.

People found it hard to adapt to this form of prayer as the Psalms were hard to remember and as there were very few printed copies, they were very hard to get. It was suggested to people outside of the monastery that they recite "Our Father" prayers instead.

As this style of devotion became more popular, people started to create ways of keeping track of their prayers. They started putting 150 pepples into a small pouch, because this was difficult, they used a thin piece of rope with fifty knots on it three times instead. Finally they used string with small pieces of wood.

The Irish monks travelled throughout Europe in later years, bringing this type of devotion with them.

The clergy and non clergy began reciting the first part of the "Hail Mary", the "Angelic Salutation" as part of this devotion. This became popular, and led to the embracing of fifty Angelic Salutations for each piece of wood on the prayer string.

Unenlightened theologians started to explain the 150 psalms as disguised mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus during the 13th century.

They began to write a series of praises in his honour for each explanation of the psalms.

Also they composed 150 praises in honour of Mother Mary. So as to fit the existing prayer string, the praises were separated into groups of fifty called "Rosariums".

While Rosarium relates to rose gardens and roses, it was used as a sign of a compilation of prayers that could be compared to a bunch of roses. The application of special thoughts or meditations being attached to each bead came about because of the explanation of the psalms written into praises.

Alan de la Roche of the Dominican Order widley spread this modernized version of the rosary, as it refreshed the divinely inspired works that St Dominic and his rosary brotherhood had started a hundred years before.

The Rosarium prayers were later divided into groups of ten which became known as decades. One "Our Father" came before each decade of ten "Hail Mary's".

Thoughts used in the rosary started to become stories about the year 1700. St Louis De Montford wrote the most common set of stories that ultimately became meditations for each of the decades.

The stories were separated into five sorrowful, five glorious and five joyful meditations called "mysteries".

Pope John II brought in one more set of five meditations called the "Luminous Mysteries". return from rosary history to history of meditation

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Disclaimer: If you have a serious illness and are taking medication for that illness, DO NOT STOP TAKING YOUR MEDICATION unless you are told it is safe for you to do so by your health care professional. The author of this web site in no way recommends the stopping of medication if you need to take it, use your medication together with meditation.