The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-09-06
ORIGIN OF The ROSARY.
lis Uss BY ths Chris ians, Mohsmmsdans, Budd-
hIsts, J.ws and Oilers.


variously attributed to St. Albert de
Crespin. Peter the Hermit, st. Diminic,
and others. or the latter the Roman
breviary Office states that he was ad-
monished by the Blessed Virgin Mary
10 preach the rosary as a special rem
edy against heresy and sim" OF thu
three. the most probable is Peter the
Hermit, who. toward the end of the
eleventh century, traveled through Eu-
rope, exhorting all Christian Princes
and people to take up the cross in
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, says the
Rehquary had undoubtedly seen the in
strumenG of the rosary in the hands OF
tine Monammedans
The MohamInedan counts his repiti-
tions-e. g., The absolute glory OF
Goa (thmty-thgee tlmss): Tine abso-
lutte glory of God, the great, with his
praise forever" tonce): Praise be To
God" Ctnirty-three times): 'Extolled
be his gnity! There is no Deity but
him" (once): God is most great" (thir-
ty-three times). "Ciod is most great in
greatness and praise be 10 God in
abundance (once)-with a string OF
beass called seb hhab or soob hhab.
The beads are ninety mine in number.
and have mark between each thirty
three made of aloe or other odorifer-
Gus or precious woods. or of coral, or
OF certain fruit-stones seeds, etc. AT
the death of a Moos-ljm fickee faki),
as many as fifty say the b'hhab, or
rosary, upon rosary of 1000 beads,
each about the size of pigeons egg.
thrice repeating 1000 times There is
no Deity but God" and other ejacu-
lations fifty and 100 times. The Mo-
hammedan probably derived the use of
this appliance from the Hirdoo Re-
manuals and other sectaries, who carry
rosaries of seeds of the tulasi (holy
basi1), or of lotus; or the Buddhists. as
those of Thibet who tell the beads of
their large rosaries, as they repeat the
words. "Om mane padme houm"-"Oh,
the jewel Of the lotus"-a phrase which
of men repeat ali their lives
without understanding it's meaning but
believing that they are insuring for
themselves a happy future: or, yet.
again, perhaps. from the Jews who
have a chaplet callei Meah Beracot.
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 a divin-
ity holding in his extended left hand
a chaplet composed OF large and small
beads placed alternately. Large num-
bers OF long strings of carnelian beads.
all exactly alike I'm form. have been
found with tools and pottery during
excavations at Ilahun. In a B1bylonian
prayer OCCUR the words, 60 my God.
seven times seven are my transgres-
sons, my tranSgressicns are before
me-" which were 10 be repeated ten
times. And. again, May THY heart,
like the heart of the mother of the set
ting day. To it's place return" to be re-
pea'tsd five times. The use OF the ro-
sary by the orthodox Christians of the
East differs widely from that Of West
srn christen'om. The Greek priests are
to repeat forty Kyrie oleisons
thrice every day. and thesa they count
off on their beads. The Copts use a
string OF forty-one beads saying 20.
nv Lord. have mercy" forty
times: others count by their fingers.
The separated Copts and Armenians
verv often use rOSares exactly the
same as the Mohammedons. without n
,ross: but most OF those OF the Greeks
md the Russ ans have crosses attached
io them. All the separated Easterns
old an Anglican clergyman that they
only used the rosary to count their
and kyries or else 10 have
,cnething I'm their hands while talking
)r thinking.