Thursday, January 13, 2022

Rosary

Catholics pray the Rosary. Muslims also have a rosary - the subḥa; this is to recite the hundred names of God. Orthodoxy has the chotki.

Saint Paul of Thebes, whose biography Jerome wrote, used used pebbles and knotted cord - if I am to believe JereMiles Hardy, "Invention of the Rosary" ed. Great Events In Religion (and wiki). Note: I cannot find this in Jerome's text. Gertrude of Nivelles used beads for prayer; she died in AD 659. Gertrude was contemporary with the "Ave Maria" in the Advent Mass.

Overall the Rosary as Christians know it seems of the Latin West. It looks female-driven; plus maybe Jerome. As one might expect of occidentals . . .

I poked around for Syriac rosary, and there is one - for Maronites. Of course Matthew's "Lord's Prayer" has been in Syriac maybe even before they had Matthew, or the Diatesseron, in Syriac. Of Syriac use of the "Hail Mary", I am less sure.

'Tis on-brand for our post-Jerome Church that we venerate Mary to such degree whilst falling short of monophysitism. Incoherent, but on-brand. Also on-brand is for the Orthodox to dismiss Latin pietas out of hand even where they're in agreement. It's just sad.

Although, I don't expect anything like this Rosary among the Nestorians.

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