Religious Orders and the Rosary: A Walk Through the Scriptures

The Rosary is a wonderful prayer and meditation on the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of His Blessed Mother. In studying the history of the rosary I have come across a number of things that have given me a new appreciation for our faith. One thing I did not know is the rosary did not develop all at once. The rosary developed in religious orders and was picked up by the laity. So with different religious orders, there are different types of rosaries. I would like to share some of those rosaries with you in this article. Instead of going into an historical background of each, I will merely show or describe what each looks like and the religious order that established it.

The Dominican Rosary

The first rosary is the standard 5-decade or “Dominican” rosary. This rosary developed in the Dominican Order. The reflections for meditation are: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. In 2002, Pope John Paul II added another decade to this rosary. This is not an official addition per se, but it certainly adds to growing experience in devotion and reflection of the Gospel.

The Servite Rosary

Rosary of the 7 Sorrows of Mary or Servite Rosary

The next rosary is called a “Servite” rosary. It is also known as the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. The Servite’s or Servants of Mary developed this rosary as a means of meditating on the sorrows that Mary experienced throughout her life. Notice that this rosary looks a lot like the standard rosary but has 7 groups of 7 beads.

The Franciscan Crown Rosary

A third rosary originated in the Franciscan order. It is called the “Seraphic” rosary or Rosary of the Seven Joys of Mary. It is also called the Franciscan Crown rosary. This is similar to the Seven Sorrows but reflects on the 7 joys in the life of Mary. On this rosary there are 7 groups of 10 beads. It is ended with two extra beads for a total of 72 in honor the 72 years our Lady lived in this life.

Our Lady of Lourdes holds a six decade Rosary

The Brigittine Rosary
A fourth rosary comes from the Carmelite Order. For those who have been to Lourdes, France, you may have noticed that the rosary on the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes is a little different from those we have spoken of already. This rosary is called a “Brigittine” rosary, named after Saint Brigit of Sweden. This rosary looks like the 5-decade rosary only with an extra decade. So the Brigittine rosary has 6 groups of 10. These also contemplate the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries.

The standard “Dominican” rosary has been the one that is most popular. The rosary was originally begun as a means to keep track of daily recitation of the Psalter or Psalms of David. There were 150 psalms and the monks kept count by the use of beads or stones. Stringing the beads made it easier to pray while traveling. This later developed into a recitation of “Our Fathers” (Pater Nosters) and/or Hail Marys (Aves).

In future posts I will be giving a short overview on each type of rosary and a short history. My goal is to point out the wonderful diversity we have in the Catholic Faith in our 2000 years of history. This was one of the means the Church spread the Gospel before Bibles were widely available. If you have any questions or know of any other rosaries from various religious orders, please comment.

Ave Maria!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Resources:
The servite rosary information:  http://www.rosaryandchaplets.com/chaplets/seven_sorrows_prayer.html
For more information on the Franciscan Crown Rosary see: http://www.fisheaters.com/franciscancrown.html
Our Lady of Lourdes information and picture retrieved on 1/5/2012 from  http://www.newmanchaplets.com/articles/the-six-decade-rosary/