For almost eight hundred years, the Dominicans have been faithfully living out their motto, “To give to others the fruits of their contemplation.” What has been received in prayer has been shared with others through preaching and witness of life. While there are many methods of preaching, the one by far the easiest and most popular of all times is the rosary. Through the repetition of the Hail Mary, prayers are grouped in decades, each beginning with the Our Father prayer. The rosary contemplates the mysteries of Christ. In preaching the rosary, Dominicans present the truths of the faith in simple language and prayer.

In order to preach the rosary, Dominicans first must cherish and devotedly recite the Ave Marias, joining the mental to the vocal element. The rosary prayer ultimately is a means to contemplation. One cannot give what one is lacking. The Constitution of the Order of Preachers prescribed that each day the friars are to offer the Blessed Virgin Mary a crown of roses through the recitation of the Ave Marias. It is a simple prayer that can be recited in private or in common, at home or aboard, in the chapel or in the yard. It is a prayer of union with Mary in contemplating the events of her lives in light of the mysteries of Christ.

The Hail Mary is said to be the favorite prayer of Mary. The more it is repeated, the more Mary delights in the greetings of Gabriel and Elizabeth. The salutations recalled the joys of Mary at the Annunciation and the mystery of Incarnation. It is also the confidence and trust of a child in a sinless and virginal mother. This petition was added by the Church at the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

The Hail Mary is very dear to the Dominican soul. Holy Father Dominic was first to give witness to this great devotion and love for the Mother of God. Since the eleventh century Christians have been reciting the Ave Maria, consisting only of the angelic salutation on their knees.[1] The greeting of Elizabeth was added the following century. By the time of Dominic, he and the first brethren were accustomed to such Marian piety. During his years of preaching to the Albigensians, Dominic confronted the heretics with divine truths. Manuscripts from fourteenth century summarized the preaching of Dominic under three themes: Incarnation, Redemption, and Eternal life, which according to Reginald-Garrigou Lagrange, was inspired by Our Lady. Dominic faithfully carried out the Virgin Mary’s desire for the salvation of souls through the preaching of the Gospel mysteries.[2]

Jordan of Saxony followed the founder’s example and creatively devised his own devotion. Each night after Compline he visited Our Lady’s altar to pay personal tribute to the Mother of God. Jordan began first with the hymn Ave Maris Stella followed by the recitation of the Magnificat and four psalms. The initial letters of these biblical prayers form the Virgin’s name, MARIA.[3] After each psalm, instead of the traditional Gloria Patri, Jordan recited the Hail Mary, in its short biblical form, genuflecting at the words of the angel Gabriel’s greeting.[4]

As early as 1266, the lay brothers of the Order recited the Hail Mary as part of their choral office duty, in addition to the Our Father, called Paternoster. An ancient custom of counting the Our Father prayer on a knotted string was used by the lay brothers who could not read. They participated in the prayer of the Church through the recitation of the 150 Our Fathers in placed of the Psalms. With the addition of the Hail Mary prayers, the rosary, a knotted or beaded string, became known as paternosters. By the thirteenth century, the pious custom of reciting 150 Hail Marys is referred to as the Psalter of Mary.[5]

In the early fourteenth century, Dominicans in Germany adopted the Angelus prayer as a devotion which was a Franciscan practice since 1269. When the church bell struck three times to signal the evening curfew, the Angelus in its short biblical form was prayed three times.[6]

The Order of Preachers tirelessly propagated the devotion to the rosary and one of its members, a Dominican pope, Pius V, declared the rosary as the official prayer of the Church. Christians joined in earnest recitation of the rosary, begging the intercession of the Virgin Mary as Turks advanced into the Strait of Corinth in 1571. Through the intercession of Mary and Hail Marys, the Battle of Lepanto was won. Henceforth, a feast, Our Lady of Victory, was established to annually commemorate the miraculous event on October 7.[7] Gregory XIII, the successor of Pius V, changed the title of the feast to Our Lady of Rosary.

Since the sixteenth century, the fifteen decade rosary was added to the Dominican habit. The rosary of five decades is recited daily in common in many houses of the Order. There is no doubt that the recitation of the rosary is the most pleasing form of veneration of Our Lady and a most powerful means of obtaining spiritual and temporal favors.