Rosary

In Roman Catholicism a Marian prayer composed of fifteen decades of “Hail Marys,” with an “Our Father” preceding and a “Glory be to the Father” following each decade. The recitation is accompanied by meditation upon the fifteen mysteries pertaining to the joys, the sufferings, and the glories of Christ and the Virgin. In Romanism it is a very characteristic aspect of devotion to the Madonna. Existence of the Rosary is attested to by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries among the monks and nuns of the Cistercian* and Mendicant* orders. Later, use of the chaplet (endless string of beads) and the meditations were added to the vocal recitations. Pius V established the formula of the Rosary as it is known today. The feast of the Rosary (7 October) commemorates the victory of Charles VI over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571. The victory was attributed to the intervention of the Virgin.