Who invented the rosary?

[Jazzy]

Who invented the rosary?

Where did the tradition of the rosary, and those prayers associated with it, come from?

 

[Albion]

Who invented the rosary?

Where did the tradition of the rosary, and those prayers associated with it, come from?

Apparently, lay persons who wanted to participate in some of the devotions common to monks began to use strings of beads or knots with which to keep track of their prayers. That was during the early Middle Ages.

In time, the beads were arranged in a circle for convenience. The church authorities also got into assigning certain prayers to certain beads, designating spiritual benefits that would come to those who pray the rosary, declaring the exercise to be a devotion directed at the Virgin Mary, and inventing a story about Mary having appeared to St. Dominic and given the rosary to him. The rosary's prayers and shape have continued to be modified by church authorities over the centuries since. Some other religions have similar devices and devotions.

 

[Stephen]

My understanding is that it was given to St. Dominic (1170-1221). However there may be a more complicated history to it.

Firstly, well before that, monks had a practice of praying the whole 150 psalms every day. However lay brothers in monasteries were illiterate and so they prayed the "Our Father" (Latin Pater Noster) 150 times using knotted cords to keep count. This practice spread to lay men and women and beads were used instead of knots. There is a street in London called Paternoster Row where these beaded cords were made
[A] possible etymology is that it was the main place in London where paternoster beads were made. The beads were popular with the laity, as well as illiterate monks and friars at the time, who prayed 50 Paternoster prayers (Latin for "Our Father") three times a day as a substitute for the 150 psalms recited a day by literate monks. (Wkipedia).

According to an article in This Rock magazine "The word "bede" in Middle English, from which we derive the word "bead," originally meant "prayer."

It seems to have evolved from the original given to St. Dominic as, again according to the This Rock magazine "During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the rosary settled into its present form. It now consists of the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Gloria."

According to the section on the Rosary in the Directory On Popular Piety And The Liturgy issued by the Vatican "The Rosary is essentially a contemplative prayer, which requires "tranquillity of rhythm or even a mental lingering which encourages the faithful to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life"