Both the Bollandist scholar, Thomas
Esser, and, later at the turn of the last
century, Herbert Thurston concluded
that the four-hundred-year tradition attributing
the rosary to St. Dominic was a case of
mistaken identity (although Dominicans from the fifteenth century were its
chief promoters). Since these works
appeared, there has been much
research on the origins and the
evolution of this prayer. From about
the eleventh century, the recitation of 150
prayers (Pater Noster or Ave Maria)
was considered a way of participating
in the monastic office. From the eleventh
to the fourteenth century, many "rosary-like"
prayers appeared - psalm refrains or
rhymed verses interspersed with the
words of the Ave Maria.
Anne Winston-Allen's study investigates the developments which occurred from 1420 to 1520 in
Germany.
Here, in Cistercian circles, a "life-of-Christ" rosary developed, attributed
to Dominic of Prussia, with fifty short
phrases (clausulae) added to the Ave
Maria. As an aid to meditation, these
fifty scenes from Christ's life soon appeared on woodcuts. The Ulm Picture
Rosary, containing these woodcuts,
was among the earliest devotional
works printed. Because, in popular
recitation, it was difficult to retain the fifty points, the fifteen mysteries
developed. Perhaps the most original part of
Winston-Allen's work is to locate the
origins of the mysteries in the statutes
of the rosary confraternities.
In the 1470s, rosary confraternities or
sodalities flourished in Cologne,
Douai, Venice. The rosary fraternities
attracted thousands of members, as
they fulfilled the desire for greater
religious participation. Winston-Allen's
work refers frequently to current
literature on late medieval piety and
devotion-a topic related to many
Reformation issues. Ironically, the
many indulgences granted to the
rosary and the fraternities soon over-shadowed and transformed a simple
and basically contemplative prayer into
a structured and unchangeable form.
The author concludes that the rosary's
development was not unlike a "tissue
of quotations drawn from innumerable
centers of culture" (Roland Barthes). It
was a form of prayer which developed
over several centuries drawing from
many sources.
--Thomas A. Thompson, S.M.
Return to Book Review Index
Return to the Resources Menu
Return to The Mary Page
This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute,
Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by
Jim Danis
, was last modified
Tuesday, 09/21/2010 13:47:05 EDT
by
Ajay Kumar
. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.
URL for this page is http://campus.udayton.edu |