The Prayer Rope

We've been talking about the origin of the Rosary lately and its promotion by Alan de la Roche, but it wasn't the only or earliest aide to memory when reciting prayers. The precursor to the Rosary or "proto-Rosary" was the prayer rope.

In the early years of the spread of Christianity, the Eastern Mediterranean developed some practices and philosophies that were different from Rome and Europe. By the 4th century CE we know that some ascetics and hermits who withdrew from the world to pray all day used prayer ropes to keep themselves on track.

The prayer rope is a knotted cord designed to be handled during prayer so that one could feel one's way from knot to knot and keep an accurate count of recitations. The typical prayer rope might have 100 knots, a nice round number of prayers. Ropes can be found with 150 knots (for the number of Psalms), 60, 50 (which became the standard number of Hail Marys for the Rosary), 41 (one better than the days of fasting in the desert), and 33 (for the years of Jesus' life on Earth).

Traditionally it is made of wool and dyed black, to remind the user of the blackness of their sin. It was in a loop, with a cross or tassel attached to the joining of the two ends. You work your way through it with the left hand, keeping the righthand free to make the sign of the Cross at appropriate times.

Although the Rosary was sometimes worn as a necklace to remind one to pray and as spiritual protection, the prayer rope was not used as decoration.

Its creation is attributed to St. Pachomius, about whom you will learn more tomorrow.

Alan de la Roche

Alan de la Roche (also known as Alanus de Rupe) was born in Brittany c.1428; he joined the Dominican Order in 1459 in Paris, studying there and becoming well-known for his education in theology and philosophy.

He became a teacher in many locations in France and Germany. At Rostock in Germany in 1473 he was declared Master of Sacred Theology (a post-graduate degree that can stand on its own or be considered an intermediate step between Masters and doctorate programs). As famed as he was for his teaching career, he is best known now for his championing of the Rosary.

Dominican tradition holds that St. Dominic despaired at the ineffectiveness of his preaching against the Albigensian heretics, and prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. In a vision she told him to use her psalter along with preaching. A psalter was usually a book of the Psalms, but in this case it was the recitation of 150 Hail Marys. Alan claimed that the Virgin Mary had shown him a vision of how this came about with Dominic.

This account was never mentioned in Dominic's lifetime, and in the 17th century it was concluded by religious scholars that the story was concocted by Alan de la Roche to add weight to his belief that the Rosary should be more widely used.

Rather than 150 Hail Marys, Alan promoted the idea of 50 prayers: five decades of Hail Marys, interspersed with some other prayers like the Our Father. He devised three sets of mysteries of the Rosary—the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious—each reflecting significant events in the lives of Christ and Mary. Pope John Paul II added a fourth set, the Luminous Mysteries.

Alan also claimed that Mary offered him 15 promises that would come true for anyone who prayed the Rosary. These promises included special protection, not dying without the sacraments of the Church, deliverance from Purgatory, aid from Mary in your necessities, and more.

Long before the Rosary, however, there were other aids to memory during prayer, like the prayer rope used in the first few centuries by hermits and monastics. We'll talk about those tomorrow.

The Rosary

The Rosary is a series of linked beads designed to aid your memory while praying. Many faiths have used something similar, often simply calling them prayer beads. The Catholic Rosary begins with the Creed, the Our Father, three Hail Marys and the Doxology ("Glory Be"), and is followed by five "decades" of an Our Father and ten Hail Marys.

The term "Rosary" was not recorded until the year 1597, but the device itself had been around in various forms. How did this particular form of prayer beads start?

There are various stories to explain it. One, mentioned yesterday, is that Peter the Hermit invented it. Another says that it was St. Dominic who introduced it. The Dominic version claims he did not exactly invent it; rather, it was "given" to him in a vision by the Blessed Virgin Mary. This story came about long after his death, however, and during his lifetime was never mentioned.

The idea of a memory aid goes back a long way in Christianity. In the 3rd century CE Christian hermits and monks would use stones or knotted ropes to help them keep their place during the repetitive nature of prayers, such as reciting the 150 Psalms, or praying the Our Father 150 times.

In the early 1400s, Dominic of Prussia "organized" the decades of Hail Marys into the Mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious. There are five of each Mystery, describing different events in the life of Mary and their importance. (An additional set was introduce by Pope John Paul II in October 2002: the Luminous Mysteries.)

Still, the Rosary was not widely used; that is, until a Dominican friar and mystic and theologian came along. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to Alan de la Roche.

Peter in Jerusalem

When the main body of the First Crusade reached the Holy Land, Peter the Hermit joined them as a member of the council that made decisions. Peter had drummed up so much support for the Crusade that he was welcome, even though his "People's Crusade" (see the last few posts) had gone spectacularly off the rails.

In fact, Guibert of Nogent, a contemporary of the Crusade who wrote a chronicle of it, refers to Peter's status in 1098 as a "fallen star." His preaching continued, however. During the Siege of Antioch, for instance, Guibert gives Peter credit for making a stirring speech to the starving Crusaders that inspired them to leave the city and attack the larger Muslim force and achieve victory. (Part of that inspiration may have been from the discovery of the Holy Lance.)

The march to Jerusalem included besieging the town of Arqa, during which it is recorded that Peter was given responsibility as treasurer of alms.

Peter was present at Jerusalem when the Crusade captured the city, and spent some time there. According to The Alexiad, the account written by Anna Comnena of that time from the viewpoint of the reign of her father, Alexios I:

He saw many forbidden and wicked things occurring there… so he sought out the patriarch of the holy church of Jerusalem and asked why gentiles and evil men were able to pollute holy places and steal away offerings from the faithful, using the church as if a stable, beating up Christians, despoiling pilgrims through unjust fees, and inflicting on them many sufferings." The frustrated patriarch threw up his hands in exasperation: "Why do you reprimand me and disturb me in the midst of my fatherly cares? I have but the strength and power of a tiny ant when compared to those proud men. We have to redeem our lives here by regular tribute payments or else face death-dealing punishment."

Perhaps he was discouraged by what he saw in Jerusalem. In 1099 he went to Latakia (Laodicea) in Syria, and from there sailed west and home. On his way home, with Count Conon of Montaigou, a storm threatened their ship, but subsided when they prayed and promised to found a church if they survived. The two later founded Neufmoustier Abbey in Huy.

It seems he founded an Augustinian monastery in France, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The contemporary Albert of Aachen claims Peter died there in 1131 as its prior, but this must be a fabrication. In the records of Neufmoustier Abbey we find an entry for 8 July 1115:

...the death of Dom Pierre, of pious memory, venerable priest and hermit, who deserved to be appointed by the Lord to announce the first to the holy Cross.

We assume this is more accurate than Albert, especially since Albert had a tendency to presume things that suited him. And because Neufmoustier contains Peter's tomb (see illustration).

One item attributed to Peter that cannot be proven is that he invented the rosary, presumably as a guide for the illiterate in their prayers. Tomorrow we'll look at what history we know about the rosary.