Of the multitude of beautiful things that our prose could appropriate to the Holy Rosary of our Blessed Mother Mary, one of them is to call it ‘Our Lady’s Psalter’ because its 150 Hail Marys remind us of the 150 Psalms. As such, the Rosary is not only our meditations and lamentations but is also our songs of praise, thanksgiving, and celebrations of God’s mercy.
The origin of Our Lady’s Psalter appears to be more organically pollinated than apparitional, which is often the case with our Catholic traditions. In the 3rd or 4th centuries, the Desert Fathers could be found praying the 150 Psalms by counting pebbles from a pouch they carried with them everywhere. By the 8th century, the Pater Noster (Our Father) Cord had developed in Ireland as a way to track our praying the 150 Psalms, but for those who were illiterate and could, thereby, not read the Psalms or for those who had difficulty memorizing them, prayed the ‘Pater Noster’ (the ‘Our Father Prayer’) 150 times. Cords consisting of 150 knots would be prayed once, or they might count a shorter cord of 50 knots thrice. This development of the Pater Noster cord spread into the 14th century throughout Western Christendom, and many Catholics could be found wearing the cord off the girdle of their belt or around their neck, wrist, or arm.
This first contribution to the Most Holy Rosary, as we have it today, was followed by two significant contributions by the Carthusians and the Dominicans, and there is the contribution to the Rosary that each of us makes daily.
The Carthusian Contributions
Around 1400, a Carthusian monk and ascetical writer called Dominic of Prussia (1382 – 1461) created a system of prayers called the “Life of Jesus Rosary.” This Carthusian Rosary consisted of saying fifty, “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus,” which are the Angelic Salutation given from the Archangle Gabriel to Mary and the greeting she also received from her causing Elzabeth upon haste arrive to her home in the hill country (Cf. Lk 1), and then the mediation upon one to fifty different themes from the life of Christ Jesus, such as “Jesus, conceived of the Holy Spirit during the Annunciation of the Angel, “Jesus, whom you have fed from your virginal breast, adoring in him the creator,” “Jesus, who said to the thief who was crucified on his right hand: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in heaven,” “Jesus, who has finally called you to him, oh sweet Mother of his, placing you on his right hand and crowning you with glory.” (Cf. Carthusian Rosary : University of Dayton, Ohio (udayton.edu)) Adolph of Essen, Dominic of Prussia’s mentor, friend, and co-promoter of the Life of Jesus Rosary, recommended that after each theme, an Alleluia be declared, which would then be followed by one Pater Noster and Glory be. Dominic of Prussia recommended that at the conclusion of however many themes you have mediated upon, the Rosary should be concluded with the following prayer:
“Oh Immaculate, ever blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God; oh Temple of God, the most beautiful of all temples; oh Doorway of the Kingdom of Heaven through which the whole world has been saved, do hear me mercifully, and become by sweet protectress, for me a poor and wretched sinner. Be my help in all my needs. Amen.”
It was Henry of Kalkar (1328 – 1408), a Carthusian monk and theologian, who is credited with developing the structure of the rosary as we know it today, by dividing the 150 Hail Marys into 15 groups of 10, each preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be. He also assigned a different mystery of the life of Christ or the Virgin Mary to each group to help the meditators contemplate the mysteries of faith. Henry of Kalkar’s contribution to the rosary was influential and widely adopted by other religious orders and lay people.
The Dominican & Saintly Contributions
While no 13th-century deposition or contemporary chronicle records a Marian apparition to Dominic—and nothing in the rigorous testimony collected for his canonization mentions Mary handing him a prayer beads system. Rather, the story first emerges in 15th-century hagiographies by Dominican authors such as Alanus de la Roche. It was only later, in the early 1700s, that Saint Louis de Montfort wove these devotional legends into a popular account of Our Lady’s gift, relying on centuries-old oral tradition rather than eyewitness records. Again, this apparition is undocumented – no witnesses – Dominic did not mention it himself – and nothing was found in his cause of canozation that could verify it. It is a likely a myth.
📜 What We Know from the Canonization Process
Holy Father Dominic was canonized in 1234, just 13 years after his death, through two formal inquiries—one in Bologna and one in Toulouse. These inquiries focused on his holiness, miracles, preaching, and character, but none of the depositions mention the Rosary or a Marian apparition.
The earliest Dominican documents—such as the Libellus of Blessed Jordan of Saxony and the Nine Ways of Prayer—make no reference to the Rosary. Aside from four letters, there are no extant writings from Dominic himself, and no contemporary source links him directly to the Rosary’s origin.
🧭 When the Rosary Legend Emerged
The story of Mary giving the Rosary to Dominic first appears in the 15th century, over 200 years after his death, through Dominican friar Alanus de Rupe (Alan de la Roche). Alanus claimed to have received visions affirming the tradition, but his accounts are not corroborated by earlier sources and are considered devotional rather than historical.
Despite the lack of verifiable historical proof, successive popes embraced the Dominic-Rosary legend on devotional and liturgical grounds, not strict critical inquiry. In 1569, Pope Pius V issued the bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices, drawing on Dominican fraternity memory and longstanding public devotion to establish the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary after attributing Lepanto’s 1571 victory to the Rosary’s intercession. In 1716, Pope Clement XI made that feast universal following the Siege of Corfu, again appealing to popular gratitude rather than archival evidence.
Between 1883 and 1903, Leo XIII cemented the Dominican narrative in a dozen rosary encyclicals, repeatedly citing the Order’s own chronicles and centuries of liturgical veneration as proof of the Rosary’s heavenly provenance. Meanwhile, the Dominicans themselves have borne the Rosary on their cincture and championed its use for over eight centuries, testifying less to a single miraculous event and more to the prayer’s deep roots in Dominican spirituality and Marian devotion.
Our Lady’s Psalter indeed bears the imprint of the Order of Preachers regarding their pursuit of veritas. The motto of truth or veritas is important to the Order of Preachers because it reflects their commitment to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. The Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, was founded by Saint Dominic in 1215 to combat the heresies (in particular, the Albigensian heresy) that threatened the faith and unity of the Church. The Dominicans have always valued the study of sacred Scripture and theology as a means to deepen their understanding of the truth and to share it with others. In this way, the rosary of the Blessed Mother also relates to that motto because it is a prayer that meditates on the mysteries of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The rosary helps the faithful contemplate the truth revealed by God in his Son and ask for the intercession of Mary, the mother of truth and the model of faith. The rosary also has a spiritual warfare dimension, as it invokes the protection of Mary against the evil one and his lies.
The Order of Preachers also has a beautiful and unique way of praying Our Lady’s Psalter, which gives Our Lady’s Psalter the character of belonging to the liturgy of hours. (Cf. The Rosary – Friarly).
Our Lady of Fatima’s Contribution
One optional prayer that can be included in the Dominican Rosary is the Prayer of Our Lady of Fatima, which is also an important note to add to this brief history of the organic development of Our Lady’s Psalter. The prayer of Our Lady of Fatima is a supplication taught by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children who witnessed her apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. The prayer is meant to be recited after each decade of the rosary to ask for God’s mercy and peace for the world. The prayer of Our Lady of Fatima is:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.
Our Contribution
We pray the Rosary as often as we can!
