ROSARY

(Lat. rosarium, a rose-bed.) A Roman Catholic devotional practice; which consists in reciting 15 times the Paternoster, or Lord's Prayer, and 150 limes the Ave Maria, or angelical salutation; but as the computation is made by means of beads, the string of beads used for this purpose has acquired the popular name of a rosary. The rosary is thus three times the ordinary chaplet. It is instituted in honour of the fifteen principal mysteries in the life of our Saviour and the Virgin Mary. Some have attributed its institution to St. Dominic; others (among whom is Mosheim. cent. x.. part 2, c. 4) give it a higher antiquity. The festival of the Kosary falls on the first Sunday in October.Its name was changed by Gregory XIII. from that of St. Mary of the Victory, given by Pius V. on its original institution in honour of the battle of Lepanto, which took place on that day. [s. 1087]