Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The Psalter of Mary: Saint Dominic and the Origin of the Rosary"

Prouille, Languedoc (France)

In the Dominican family there is a scene that can be found. In the time of the albigense heresy, in the early 13th century, Santo Domingo de Guzmán He suffered from the poor effectiveness of his preaching. Retired in prayer, the Virgin Mary se le habría aparecido y le habría mostrado su «salterio» —el conjunto de Avemarías— como arma espiritual para la conversión de los herejes, pidiéndole que predicara los misterios de Cristo alternándolos con esas salutaciones. Algunas versiones sitúan la aparición hacia 1208, en la capilla del monasterio de Fogwhere Sunday was home to women converted from catarism.

It should be said honestly: this story is Pious tradition, very widespread and dear, but no consta in no document of the 13th century, nor in the minutes of the Order, nor in the first biographies of the saint. The explicit link of Sunday with the Rosary appears for the first time in the writings of the Blessed Alano de la Roca, dominico del siglo XV, es decir, unos trescientos años después. La propia Orden de Predicadores reconoce que el Rosario «ha tardado mucho en formarse» y que la tradición de la entrega surgió pasado el tiempo.

The documented history paints a beautiful and slow evolution. From the prayer cords of the Desert Fathers, through the Cluniac custom of praying 150 Our Fathers instead of 150 psalms, came the "Psalter of Mary": 150 Hail Marys. The second part of the Hail Mary ("Holy Mary, Mother of God…") was fixed at the beginning of the 15th century, and the classic structure of the mysteries was consolidated in the 16th century, especially with Saint Pius V in the context of Lepanto.

Así, aunque no pueda hablarse de santo Domingo como «inventor» del Rosario en sentido estricto, sí es Historically solid que la Order of Preachers was the great diffuser of this prayer: the Rosary's copradies, preaching, Dominican potatoes. The scene of surrender expresses a real spiritual truth - Mary educates the people in prayer - although her concrete form is devotion born centuries later.