The Holy Rosary of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Objection: “Why pray the Rosary? It is not mentioned in the Bible.”
The Holy Rosary is a form of popular devotion that has its earliest origins
in the Later Middle Ages. Since the time of the Church Fathers, it has been
the common practice of laity to recite with clergy and religious the
Liturgical Hours commonly known as the Divine Office. The most popular
Hour is that of Vespers (6:00 p.m.). For the most dedicated laity, daily
recitation of the Divine Office would involve praying all one hundred and
fifty Psalms of David per week. According to Cassian and St. Benedict of
Nursia, certain religious even prayed all one hundred and fifty Psalms per
day.
Throughout the Church’s history, however, the Divine Office has been a
prayer only for the literate or those who could memorize the Psalms. For
the illiterate the Holy Spirit would inspire a simpler but wonderful
alternative. Thus, over time, another “psalter” of one hundred and fifty
prayers was developed and adopted by the learned and unlearned alike ––
the Psalter of Mary. Both the physical form of the Holy Rosary and the
type and number of prayers have been changed over the centuries.¹
Certainly, being a form of prayer first developed in the Middle Ages, we do
not find the Holy Rosary mentioned in the Bible. But of what ultimate
consequence is this? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent
prayers used by both Catholics and Protestants that have been written only
in recent centuries and therefore not mentioned in the Bible. Most of these
are prayers to Jesus Himself or the Holy Spirit rather than to the Father.
1
For example, the second half of the Hail Mary (“…pray for us sinners, now and at
the hour of our death. Amen”) only reached its final form in the Breviary
promulgated by Pope St. Pius V in 1568; the ‘O my Jesus’ prayer was added at the
injunction of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917; Pope John Paul II in October 2002
released Rosarium Virginis Mariae, adding the five “Mysteries of Light.”
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