Rosary

Rosary, a string of larger and smaller beads used by Catholics as an aid to memory in keeping account of the number of Paternosters and Ave Marias recited. There are various patterns in use; a very ordinary one is a rosary of fifty-five beads, fifty small ones for the Ave Marias, separated into groups of ten by five large ones to mark Paternosters. The custom of reciting the Lord's Prayer many times in succession dates from a very early period of the Christian church; the custom of keeping a note of the prayers recited by means of strings of beads was so common in the East amongst Hindus and Mohammedans that the use of the rosary for this purpose has been said to have been introduced into Christian Europe by the Crusaders. The name (Lat. rosarium, 'a garden of roses' or 'chaplet of roses') first occurs in the 13th century, and seems to be derived from Rosa mystica, a term given to the Virgin herself, or from a set of prayers being thought of as the Virgin's rose-garden; less probable is the suggestion that the name comes from the beads being originally made of rosewood. The beads are now of various material—berries, wood, stone, ivory, metal, &c., and are often of costly workmanship, and of considerable intrinsic value. They are blessed for the use of the people by the pope, by bishops and superiors of religious orders, and by others having special power for the purpose. The name is also given to a series of prayers ('Rosary of the Blessed Virgin') consisting of fifteen decades, comprising fifteen Paternosters and Doxologies, and 150 Ave Marias, divided into three parts. The Lesser Rosary consists of one of the three parts, comprising five decades or mysteries.