The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-09-14
ORIGIN OF THE ROSARY.
Its Use by Christians, MOhammedans
Buddhists, Jews, and Others
In Early Times.

The invention of the rosary has been
variously attributed to st. Albert de
Crespin, Peter the Hermit, ST. Dominic,
and others. Of the latter, the Roman
breviary Office states that he was adj
monished by the Blessed Virgin Mary to
preach the rosary as special remedy
against heresy and sim" OF the three,
the most probable is Peter the Hermit,
who, toward the end of the eleventh
century, travelled through Europe, ex-
horting all Christian princes and peo-
pie to take up the cross in a crusade
against the Saracens, who had closed
the holy sepulcher against them.
Peter, who is credited with introducing
the fashion with the hours of Our
Lady among the crusaders, had I'M
doubleday seen the instrument of the
rosary in the hands of the Moham-
medans.
The Mohammedan counts his repeti-
tions-e. e., THE absolute glory of
God" (33 times); "rhe absolute glory
of God, the great, with his praise for
ever" (once); Praise be to God" (33
times; "EXtolled be his dignity! There
is no Deity. but him. (once); God is
most great (33 times); God is most
great in greatness, and praise be to God
in abundance" (once)-with a string of
beads called seb'hhab or soob' hhab.
The beads are 90 in number, and have
mark between 33, made of aloe or other
odoriferous or precious woods, or OF
coral. or of cert.n frui: stones, seeds.
etc. At the death of a Moos-im tickee
fakir), as many as so say the seb'hhab,
or rosary upon rosary of l,Oo0 beads,
each about the size of pigeon's-egg,
thrice repeating 1000 times: There is
no Deity but God" and other ejacula'
tons so or 100 times. The Moham-
medan probably derived the use of this
appliance from the Hindoo Remain
ujas and other sectaries, who carry
rosaries of seeds of the tulasi (holy
basiD, or of lotus; or the Buddhists.
as those OF Thibet, who tel the beads
of their large rosaries, as they repeat
the words ON name padme houm"
-"Oh, the jewel of the iotus" "a phrase
which thousands of men repeat all their
lives without understanding its mean
ing, but believing that they are insur-
ing for themselves a happy future;
or, yet again, perhaps from the Jews,
who have a chaplet called Meah Bera-
cot.
The use of such strings of beads as
an aid TO devotion was an ancient usage
in the east. Bonomi. in his Palaces OF
Nineveh." shows divinity holding in
his extended left hand chaplet COM
posed of large and small beads placed
alternately. Large numbers of long
strings of caruelian beads, all exactly
alike in form, have been found with
tools and pottery during excavations at
lllahun. In a Babylonian prayer oc-
eur the words: 20. my God. seven
times seven are my transgressions, my
transgressons are before me- which
were TO be repeated ten times. And,
again: May thy heart, like the heart
! of the mother of the setting day, to its
! place return to be repeated five times.
! The use of the rosary by the orthodox
| Christians of the east differs widely
from that of western Christendom.
| The Greek priests are required TO re-
peat 40 Kyrie eieisons thrice every day,
| and these they count off on their beads.
! The Copts use n string of IL beads,
saying: 20, my Lord, have mercy!'
! II times: others count by their fingers.
The separated Copts and Armenians
very often use rosaries exactly the
| same as the Mohammedans. without a
cross; but most of those of the Greeks
and the Russians have crosses at
tached TO them. All the separated east
ems told an Anglican clergyman that
they only used the rosary to count their
prostrations and kyries, or else to have
something in their hands while talking
or MISUNDERSTANDING
I