ROSARY, in ordinary language, ft chaplet, a garland. Also, a bed of roses; a place where roses grow; or a coin so called from bearing the figure of a rose, of foreign coinage, about the size of a penny, but worth less than a halfpenny, chiefly smuggled into Ireland. In 1300 it was made death to import them. In comparative religion, a string of beads by means of which account is kept of the number of prayers uttered.
In the Roman Catholic Church: (1) A form of prayer in which the "Hail Mary" is recited 150 times in honor of the Virgin Mary. It is divided into 15 decades, each of which begins with the "Our Father" (see LORD'S PRAYER), is accompanied by meditation on one of the mysteries in the life of our Lord, and ends with the dox ology. This is properly called the Do minican, or Great Rosary, but the name is often popularly given to the Chaplet, which contains but 50 ayes. The 15
Mysteries which should be meditated on during the recitation of the Rosary are divided into three series, each correspond ing to a chaplet : 1. Joyful.—The Annunciation, the Visi tation, the Birth of Jesus, the Presenta tion in the Temple, the Finding in the Temple.
2. Sorrowful.—The Agony in the Gar den, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion.
3. Glorious.—The Resurrection, the As cension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption, and the Coronation of the B. V. M.
There are also the Rosaries of St. Brid get, of the Seven Dolors, of the Immacu late Conception, of the Five Wounds, and the Crown of Our Saviour. (2) The beads on which any of the foregoing forms of prayers are said.