The Word Rosary Means Crown of Roses (I)

In ancient times, the Romans and the Greeks used to crown with roses the statues that represented their gods as a symbol of the offering of their hearts. Following this tradition, the Christian women who were taken to martyrdom by the Romans, marched through the Coliseum dressed in their full-color clothing and their heads adorned with crowns of roses, as symbols of joy and giving their hearts to God as they were about to encounter him. At night, the other Christians gathered their crowns, and for each rose they recited a prayer or a psalm for the eternal rest of the soul of the martyrs. The Church recommended praying the rosary, which consisted of reciting the 150 psalms of David, because it was considered to be a prayer extremely pleasant to God and a source of immeasurable graces for whom it was prayed. Nevertheless, this recommendation was followed only by literate and learned people, but not by all Christians. For this reason, the Church suggested that the illiterate replace the 150 psalms by 150 Hail Marys divided in fifteen decades. This abbreviated form was called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin.