Saint Dominic and the Rosary

Saint Dominic certainly led an eventful life. Today is his Feast Day.  He unsuccessfully tried to convert non-believers to Catholicism, experienced apparitions of Blessed Mother Mary, was directly linked to the Middle Ages Inquisition by the Catholic Church, the Saint Dominic rosary provided the structure of the modern day Holy Rosary, and he founded the Order of Dominicans.

Dominic was born of Spanish parents in Spain and spent his early years there. In neighboring southern France in those same years was a religious sect called Cathars. This sect had some elements of the Catholic faith, but held a fundamental belief which Catholicism considered heresy. Cathars believed there was an evil god that created the material world and a good god that created the spiritual world.  Cathars main heresy was their belief in dualism: the evil God created the materialistic world and the good God created the spiritual world. The Pope dispatched missionaries to southern France, including Saint Dominic, to convert the Cathars, accept Catholic teaching and cease belief in separate gods.

Saint Dominic was especially devoted to what is now considered the predecessor of the modern rosary. This was simply a tallying mechanism to count the number of prayers recited which in early times was called paternoster, which translates roughly from Latin as father (pater) and ours (noster). Often the person reciting a penance would recite 150 Our Fathers and use the paternoster to keep an accurate count. In the year 1214, Saint Dominic was in anguish because his attempt to convert the Cathars was basically a failure because he converted so very few. Saint Dominic attributed this to the deepness and gravity of sinfulness of the people. He went alone in to the forest and wept and prayed continuously for three days to appease the anger of Almighty God. After three days of this, he passed in to a coma.

Dominic experienced an apparition of Blessed Mother Mary while in the coma, which forever links Saint Dominic and the rosary. Mary appeared and asked St. Dominic : "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" Dominic's response was Blessed Mary knew better than he because she is a part of our salvation.

Mary continued : "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter" which is the rosary.

Shortly after this apparition he preached the Holy Rosary to the unconverted Carthars. To modify the paternoster (150 Our Fathers) and in compliance with the instruction in the apparition, the design of the Saint Dominic rosary came in to being. He set apart 15 mysteries of the rosary, grouped them in to 3 sets of 5 decades each.



From the Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV on Saint Domonic, FAUSTO APPETENTE DIE "Saint Dominic had a most zealous piety towards the Mother of God by Divine revelation of the victory of Lepanto achieved at that very moment when through the Catholic world the pious sodalities of the Holy Rosary implored the aid of Mary in that formula initiated by the Founder of the Friar Preachers and diffused far and wide by his followers. Loving the Blessed Virgin as a Mother, confiding chiefly in her patronage, Dominic started his battle for the Faith."

Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, help us turn to you by praying the Rosary.

Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Dominic, pray for us.