It was only in the year 1214, however, that the Church received the Rosary inits present form and according to the method we use today. It was given to theChurch by St. Dominic, who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a meansof converting the Albigensians and other sinners. 

I will tell you the story of how he received it, which is found in the verywell-known book De Dignitate Psalterii, by Blessed Alan de la Roche. SaintDominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversionof the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse, where he prayedcontinuously for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothingbut weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of God. He usedhis discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into acoma. 

At this point our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and shesaid, "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants touse to reform the world?" "Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic,"you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ youhave always been the chief instrument of our salvation." 

Then our Lady replied, "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare,the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is thefoundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach thesehardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter." 

So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the peoplein that district, he made straight for the cathedral. At once unseen angelsrang the bells to gather the people together, and Saint Dominic began topreach. 

At the very beginning of his sermon, an appalling storm broke out, the earthshook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that allwere very much afraid. Even greater was their fear when, looking at a pictureof our Lady exposed in a prominent place, they saw her raise her arms to heaventhree times to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to beconverted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the holy Mother ofGod. 

God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the newdevotion of the holy Rosary and to make it more widely known. 

At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he wenton preaching. So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance andvalue of the Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it andrenounced their false beliefs. In a very short time a great improvement wasseen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their formerbad habits. 

The Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation for every sermon andhis little tryst with our Lady immediately after preaching. 

One day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be thefeast of St. John the Evangelist. He was in a little chapel behind the highaltar prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did,when our Lady appeared to him and said: "Dominic, even though what youhave planned to say may be very good, I am bringing you a much bettersermon." 

Saint Dominic took in his hands the book our Lady proffered, read the sermoncarefully and, when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks toher. 

When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day,made no mention of Saint John other than to say that he had been found worthyto be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. The congregation was made up oftheologians and other eminent people, who were used to hearing unusual andpolished discourses; but Saint Dominic told them that it was not his desire togive them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he wouldspeak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with his forcefulness. 

So he began preaching the Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as hewould to a group of children, and used the very simple illustrations which werein the book given him by our Lady. 

Blessed Alan, according to Carthagena, mentioned several other occasions whenour Lord and our Lady appeared to Saint Dominic to urge him and inspire him topreach the Rosary more and more in order to wipe out sin and convert sinnersand heretics. In another passage Carthagena says, "Blessed Alan said ourLady revealed to him that, after she had appeared to Saint Dominic, her blessedSon appeared to him and said, 'Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are notrelying on your own wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men,you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls. 

"'But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds ofsin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is givenbitter medicine, he needs to be prepared by being put into the right frame ofmind to really benefit by it. 

"'That is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle alove of prayer in people's hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter.If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in hismercy could hardly refuse to give them his grace. So I want you to preach myRosary."' 

Doubtless, too, the wicked scheming and jealousy of the devil were largelyresponsible for getting people to neglect the Rosary, and thus block the flowof God's grace which it had drawn upon the world. 

Thus, in 1349 God punished the whole of Europe with the most terrible plaguethat had ever been known. Starting in the east, it spread throughout Italy,Germany, France, Poland and Hungary, bringing desolation wherever it went, forout of a hundred men hardly one lived to tell the tale. Big cities, towns,villages and monasteries were almost completely deserted during the three yearsthat the epidemic lasted. 

This scourge of God was quickly followed by two others, the heresy of theFlagellants and a tragic schism in 1376. 

Later on, when these trials were over, thanks to the mercy of God, our Ladytold Blessed Alan to revive the former Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.Blessed Alan was one of the Dominican Fathers at the monastery at Dinan, inBrittany. He was an eminent theologian and a famous preacher. Our Lady chosehim because, since the Confraternity had originally been started in thatprovince, it was fitting that a Dominican from the same province should havethe honour of re-establishing it. 

Blessed Alan began this great work in 1460, after a special warning from ourLord. This is how he received that urgent message, as he himself tells it: 

One day when he was offering Mass, our Lord, who wished to spur him on topreach the holy Rosary, spoke to him in the Sacred Host. "How can youcrucify me again so soon?" Jesus said. "What did you say, Lord?"asked Blessed Alan, horrified. "You crucified me once before by yoursins," answered Jesus, "and I would willingly be crucified againrather than have my Father offended by the sins you used to commit. You arecrucifying me again now because you have all the learning and understandingthat you need to preach my Mother's Rosary, and you are not doing it. If youonly did that, you could teach many souls the right path and lead them awayfrom sin. But you are not doing it, and so you yourself are guilty of the sinsthat they commit." 

This terrible reproach made Blessed Alan solemnly resolve to preach the Rosaryunceasingly. 

Our Lady also said to him one day to inspire him to preach the Rosary more andmore, "You were a great sinner in your youth, but I obtained the grace ofyour conversion from my Son. Had such a thing been possible, I would have likedto have gone through all kinds of suffering to save you, because convertedsinners are a glory to me. And I would have done that also to make you worthyof preaching my Rosary far and wide." 

Saint Dominic appeared to Blessed Alan as well and told him of the greatresults of his ministry: he had preached the Rosary unceasingly, his sermonshad borne great fruit and many people had been converted during his missions. 

He said to Blessed Alan, "See what wonderful results I have had throughpreaching the Rosary. You and all who love our Lady ought to do the same sothat, by means of this holy practice of the Rosary, you may draw all people tothe real science of the virtues." 

Briefly, then, this is the history of how Saint Dominic established the holyRosary and of how Blessed Alan de la Roche restored it.

Our Lady has approved and confirmed this name of the Rosary; she has revealedto several people that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her abeautiful rose, and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.

So the complete Rosary is a large crown of roses and each chaplet of fivedecades is a little wreath of flowers or a little crown of heavenly roses whichwe place on the heads of Jesus and Mary. The rose is the queen of flowers, andso the Rosary is the rose of devotions and the most important one

Why should we pray the Rosary?  Because it has been used andencouraged for centuries by the greatest saints and Popes, and because of itsgood effects - like a good tree it bears good fruit (Mt.7:17).  Also,because of the 15 Promises of Mary to Christians who pray it (see below) andbecause she appeared at Lourdes and Fatima to ask us to pray the Rosary. The Rosary has helped and changed thousands of lives, why not give it a chanceto help yours?

How do we pray the Rosary?  By meditating on the 15mysteries, by praying ten Hail Marys on the beads, and one Our Father and theGlory Be at each mystery.

How do we meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary?  Wemeditate on the mysteries of the rosary by using our imagination to picture themystery occurring right in front to us.  Then we keep this image fresh inour minds as we say the Hail Mary prayers.  As we meditate we repeat ourprayers, as Jesus did (Mt.26:44).  In the Rosary, we basically say,"Jesus and Mary, I love you" over again and again.  As we do, wegrow in our love of God.  Saying, "I love you" never growsold.  When we truly love, it just grows deeper.