Did St. Anthony of Padua pray the rosary?

[atassina]

Is there any evidence that St. Anthony of Padua prayed the rosary?

 

[TK421]

Is there any evidence that St. Anthony of Padua prayed the rosary?

He’s a canonized saint.

 

[Dorothy]

I am not sure about the timeline, but didn’t the Dominicans begin at about the same time that the Franciscans did?

The rosary beads may not have been well known around that time. However, canonized saints prayed and meditated much on the life of Our Lord, and His Mother. Same thing.

 

[friardchips]

I am not sure about the timeline, but didn’t the Dominicans begin at about the same time that the Franciscans did?

The rosary beads may not have been well known around that time. However, canonized saints prayed and meditated much on the life of Our Lord, and His Mother. Same thing.

(I think) beads as a prayer weapon have been around since the early centuries, but the Rosary as we know it was later on (in the form we know now). Don’t quote me on it, though.

 

[USMC_Convert]

Well it is possible, he died in 1231 and St Dominic died before him in the 1220’s so St Dominic’s revelations may have been known to St Anthony but I doubt you would find much evidence of it. I, for one, have no idea, I would not say he did nor would I say he didn’t.

What I would absolutely say is that it is more than likely, an almost certainty, that he prayed the earlier type of “Rosary” like prayers that most all the Saints probably prayed before the revelations of the Blessed Mother to St Dominic, and that is the 150 Psalms. Those were typically prayed on beads much like the Rosary. In fact the Rosary is really seen as a growth of the 150 psalms, Christians and I believe Jews prayed those and then the Blessed Mother gave us the Rosary through St Dominic and well, the rest is history.

 

[USMC_Convert]

I am not sure about the timeline, but didn’t the Dominicans begin at about the same time that the Franciscans did?

The rosary beads may not have been well known around that time. However, canonized saints prayed and meditated much on the life of Our Lord, and His Mother. Same thing.

The Dominicans were the only ones to begin it, as the revelations were given to St Dominic. Now, the Franciscans have a treasured and very important role throughout history of keeping the Rosary safe and using the Rosary but only the Dominicans can claim to have started the Rosary!

 

[atassina]

. . . . almost certainty, that he prayed the earlier type of “Rosary” like prayers that most all the Saints probably prayed before the revelations of the Blessed Mother to St Dominic, and that is the 150 Psalms. Those were typically prayed on beads much like the Rosary. . . . .

This part answers my question. Thanks USMC. St. Anthony most certainly had a devotion to our Holy Mother. I suppose he wrote something about her in his writings.

The OP
Enjoy a cup of espresso with the slice of cake.

 

[Mintaka]

St. Albert the Great was one of St. Dominic’s contemporaries, and (besides the Office, which contained the 150 Psalms) he had the habit of saying 50 Angelic Salutations every day in his room, wherever he traveled. He would stand while saying “Hail, Mary, the Lord is with thee!”, kneel, and say, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Then he would stand up again.

This was before the full Hail Mary was invented; so it was not surprising that people said the Angelic Salutation prayer instead.

We know a great deal about how St. Dominic prayed, including his seven favorite prayer positions. He did not pray the Rosary. Neither the Rosary nor the Hail Mary had been invented yet.

Blessed Alan de la Roche was a very holy theologian who lived in the 1400’s – 200 years after St. Dominic. He lived in a time when the Rosary had been invented and was already fairly common. He had many symbolic or located-in-heaven visions where St. Dominic preached to him, or where Mary showed him things.

In one of his visions, he saw the Virgin Mary giving St. Dominic the Rosary. He took this to mean that all Dominicans should pray and promote their version of the Rosary, and he made it one of his own personal missions in life. He promoted the Rosary from northern France all the way to the Netherlands, and it helped many ordinary people love Christ better and become holy. So his vision bore a lot of good fruit.

The vision was not supposed to mean that St. Dominic historically was given the Rosary, during his time on Earth, the way St. Faustina historically was given the Divine Mercy devotions. It probably does show that the saints in heaven continue to pray for us in many ways, including praying the same prayers as we do; and it certainly shows that Mary and St. Dominic were both very interested in helping the Dominican friars and ordinary laypeople still on Earth. St. Dominic’s missionary preaching did not end when he left this life.

Anyway, Dominicans and Rosary devotees have made many pictures of Blessed Alan’s vision – because it reminds people that the Rosary was given to us as a help.

 

[Mintaka]

However… there is some evidence that the Dominican Order did have traditions from before Blessed Alan’s time that associated St. Dominic with teaching people to meditate on incidents from the Gospel while saying Paters and Angelic Salutations. There is even some reason to think that such prayers were associated with rose imagery. And it is certainly possible that St. Dominic had experienced an apparition of the Virgin Mary that encouraged him to teach this way. (Blessed Alan says in his account of the visions that he had heard such a tradition from other Dominicans, before he had his vision.) So the vision probably wasn’t entirely symbolic and unhistoric. Still, any Rosary version that St. Dominic produced would have been noticeably different from the way people said the Rosary in Blessed Alan’s time. (Not that it makes much difference, so long as you are praying and meditating.)

Anyway, whether the vision was of a historical or symbolic event, the help is definitely given us now, here on Earth.