Our Lady of the Rosary

There are two basic types of Our Lady of the Rosary image.  In the older type, from the 16th through the 18th centuries, the Virgin Mary gives the Rosary to St. Dominic alone or to him and other saints, as at left.

The second type is the one that prevails today. The Virgin Mary stands alone or with the Christ Child and holds a rosary in her hand. There is very little consistency in images of this style, beyond the fact that the Virgin usually holds a rosary and wears blue and white.

By the 18th century (the time of the painting shown) the Rosary had evolved into the shape it retained until the 21st century: 15 sets of ten recitations of the "Hail Mary" prayer, each set preceded by the "Our Father" (the "Lord's Prayer") and followed by the "Glory Be."

Since the 15th century the 15 sets have been associated with 15 events from the stories of Mary and Jesus. Moving clockwise in the painting and starting with the roundel above the head of the putto on the right, the 15 sets are as follows:
  1. The Annunciation
  2. The Visitation
  3. The Nativity
  4. The Presentation in the Temple
  5. The boy Jesus preaching in the Temple
  6. The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
  7. The Flagellation
  8. The Buffeting (more commonly the Crowning with Thorns)
  9. The Carrying of the Cross
  10. The Crucifixion
  11. The Resurrection
  12. The Ascension
  13. Pentecost
  14. The Assumption
  15. The Coronation of Mary
The legend that it was St. Dominic who first taught the Rosary devotion was invented by the Dominican Alan de Rupe in the 15th century. In fact, the practice of using beads in Christian prayer in the West goes back at least to the 10th century and was associated with the Our Father rather than the Hail Mary until the 12th century.

Day of commemoration: First Sunday of October

 At left, Our Lady of the Rosary - Spain, 18th century

Another image:
The Gift of the Rosary, 1666

Also see:
Historical essay on the Rosary in the Catholic Encyclopedia (cached)

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