The Word Rosary Means Crown of Roses (III)

Saint Dominic changed his homily and spoke of the devotion to the Rosary. By his influence people gradually began to pray it with devotion, to lead Christian lives, and abandon their bad habits. Saint Dominic died in 1221, after a life dedicated to preaching and to promoting the devotion of the rosary among people of all social classes, for the souls of Purgatory, for the triumph over evil, and the prosperity of the Holy Catholic Church. The prayer of the rosary maintained its fervor for about one hundred years after Saint Dominic's death then slowly began to lose popularity among the faithful. In 1349, the Black Death Plaque ravaged Europe. At this time, Abbot Alan de la Roche, superior of the Dominicans in France, had an apparition in which Jesus, the Blessed Virgin and Saint Dominic asked him to revive the old custom of the prayer of the rosary. Father Alan began this work of propagation along with all the Dominican friars in 1460. They gave the Rosary its present form, with ecclesiastical approval.