Question on origin of the rosary

[CelticSword]

I have just received my certificate of perpetual membership in the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, and am elated!



There is something I do not fully understand about the origins of the rosary, though. Did the Blessed Mother actually physically hand St. Dominic the first rosary? Or did she give him a vision of it from which he constructed the first one?

If the Virgin Mary actually handed St. Dominic the first rosary, then, wow! Think of it! Please tell me that this “rosary zero” is on display somewhere or kept in a highly secure or private place for safe keeping! Anyone who held that rosary would be handling the exact same beads and chains that the Blessed Mother herself had held. I would think that this would be a religious artifact of the highest value and importance in Church history.

If the original rosary is no longer in existance, is there any information on what happened to it? Perhaps St. Dominic was buried with it?

This history buff is just curious…

 

[philipbenedict]

Here is something from This Rock.
catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0212fea4sb1.asp

 

[Christy_Beth]

Wasn’t it St. Simon who had this vision? Or was his vision about the scapular? Anyway, that we now have it is amazing. I know that in the middle ages, only those who could afford it were educated. The monks of that day prayed the psalms. I once read about the type of schedule that made this possible. I can’t remember the name of the order or anything, but the psalms were prayed in totality each week.

Many couldn’t read because they couldn’t afford education. Yet they wanted to join in the prayers of the monks. So they were given to read 150 Our Fathers. This is in line with the 150 psalms. That developed into the rosary as we know it today.

 

[Arwen037]

We had a woman come into our class to talk to us about the Rosary. She was from some order that deals highly with the Rosary, but I can’t recall the name. She told us that the Rosary sorta dates back to Christian persecution. Young women who were martyred would wear a circlet of roses on their head going into the arena. Afterwards her family and friends could claim the body, and they would also pick up the rose circlet. The faithful would then say prayers over the roses in the circlet. Hence the name Rosary. How accurate that version is, I don’t know. I just know that’s what she taught us in class.