
Alain de la Roche
(c.1428–1475)Of Breton origin, Alain de La Roche entered the Dominicans of Dinan in c.1450 and, after some time at Paris, spent his whole career in the convents of the ...

Battle of Lepanto
A naval battle fought in 1571 close to the port of Lepanto at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. The Christian forces of Rome, Venice, and Spain, under the leadership of Don John of Austria, ...

bead
Originally meaning ‘prayer’, current senses derive from the use of a rosary, each bead representing a prayer. Beadsman is a historical term for a pensioner provided for by a benefactor.

chaplet
The name given to the three parts into which the devotion of the Rosary is divided. It consists of five decades and forms a complete devotion in itself.

Colmar
Attested from 823, not far from the mother-parish of Horburg, Colmar (Columbarium) was the chief town of a fisc given by Louis the Pious to the abbey of Münster (founded ...

Coronation of Our Lady
The final triumph of the BVM in heaven, wherein she is crowned by Christ. It is the subject of the last Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.

decade
A division of the Rosary, so called because it consists of ten Hail Marys, together with the Lord's Prayer and a Gloria Patris.

Fatima
A village in Portugal, where in 1917 it was reported that apparitions of the Virgin Mary appeared; it is now the site of a Marian shrine.

fraternities
In the Middle Ages fraternities of many kinds were founded in the Church to meet the religious and social needs of clergy and laity. Their primary purpose was to secure for their members mutual ...

Glorious Mysteries, the Five
The third chaplet of the Rosary, consisting of: (1) the Resurrection; (2) the Ascension; (3) the Descent of the Holy Spirit; (4) the Assumption of the BVM; and (5) the Coronation of the BVM.(1) the ...

Joyful Mysteries, the five
The first chaplet of the rosary, consisting of (1) the Annunciation, (2) the Visitation, (3) the Nativity of Christ, (4) the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and (5) the Finding of the Child ...

komvoschinion
(Gk. κομβοσχοίνιον; Slavonic, vervitsa or tchotki).In the E. Church, a knotted cord of wool or other material (less commonly, a string of beads), corresponding to the W. rosary, although ...

mālā
(Skt.) A rosary, used for reciting mantras or other prayers mainly by Mahāyāna Buddhists. The beads on a mālā, normally 108, can be made of wood, hard nut kernels, bone, crystal, or other materials. ...

Marianists
The ‘Society of Mary’, of Bordeaux. This congregation of RC priests and laymen was founded in 1817 by Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade to combat religious indifference. Its members devote themselves mainly ...

Mysteries of the Rosary
The fifteen subjects of meditation connected with the decades of the Rosary. They are divided into three groups known as the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries (qq.v.).

Nāfila
(Arab.).A work of supererogation in Islam, based on Qurʾān 17. 79: ‘Perform vigils during a part of the night, reciting the Qurʾān, as a nāfila for yourself.’ The most obvious nawāfil (pl.) are ...

Nām Simaran
(Pañjābī, ‘remembrance of the name’, ‘repetition of the name’).Remembrance of God, a term common to Hindu and Sikh devotion. Whether silently or aloud, through singing hymns or with the ...

Nāmdhārī
(Pañjābī, ‘adherent of divine name’).A Sikh movement which others regard as a sect, although Nāmdhārīs regard themselves as a revival of Sikh orthodoxy. The Nāmdhārī movement was founded in ...

Nenju
(Chin., nien-chü).A Japanese term denoting a rosary, or string of beads, used for counting the number of times one has recited the name of Amitābha Buddha.

Rām Siṅgh
(b. 1816).Founder of Nāmdhārī Sikh movement. Rām Siṅgh, a carpenter from Bhainī Sāhib, Pañjāb, was a disciple of Bālak Siṅgh. He made Nāmdhārīs distinguishable from other Sikhs by their ...