The Franciscan Crown (or Seraphic Rosary) is a

rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

consisting of seven decades in commemoration of the

Seven Joys of the Virgin The Seven Joys of the Virgin (or of Mary, the Mother of Jesus) is a popular devotion to events of the life of the Virgin Mary, arising from a trope of medieval devotional literature and art. The Seven Joys were frequently depicted in medieval d ...

, namely, the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

, the Visitation, the

Nativity of Jesus The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is described in the biblical gospels of Gospel of Luke, Luke and Gospel of Matthew, Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea (Roman ...

, the

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...

, the

Finding in the Temple The Finding in the Temple, also called Christ among the Doctors or the Disputation (the usual names in art), was an episode in the early life of Jesus depicted in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke. It is the only event of the later childhood of Je ...

, the

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...

, and finally, either or both the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

and the

Coronation of the Virgin The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God th ...

. Devotion to the seven joys of Mary is found in a variety of forms and communities. It is especially popular with the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

s, and the

Annunciade Annunciade (English: Annunciation), and various alternate spellings, may refer to: Religious orders * Servites, also known as the ''Servants'' or ''Annunziata'', first religious order of its kind was instituted in 1232 by seven Florentine merch ...

s of St. Joan of France. The devotion was granted many

indulgences In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

by different Popes, becoming the most heavily indulgenced devotion in the Church. In order for any associated indulgences to be received it was not necessary for a Franciscan rosary to have been blessed or even to use beads at all.

History

The Franciscan Crown has variously been called the Franciscan Rosary, the Seraphic Rosary or the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Our Lady. The "Seven Joys" is a devotion that recalls seven joyful episodes in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The practice originated among the Franciscans in early 15th-century

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The themes resemble the 12th-century ''Gaudes'', Latin praises that ask Mary to rejoice because God has favored her in various ways. The Franciscan historian, Father

Luke Wadding Luke Wadding, O.F.M. (16 October 158818 November 1657), was an Irish Franciscan friar and historian. Life Early life Wadding was born on 16 October 1588 in Waterford to Walter Wadding of Waterford, a wealthy merchant, and his wife, Anastasia ...

(1588-1657) dates the origin of the Franciscan Crown to the year 1422. According to Franciscan tradition, in 1422 an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place in

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...

, to a Franciscan novice named James. As a child, he had the custom of offering daily the Virgin Mary a crown of roses. When he entered the Friars Minor, he became distressed that he would no longer be able to offer this gift. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him to give him comfort and showed him another daily offering that he might do: to pray every day seven decades of

Hail Mary The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

s, meditating between each decade on one of the seven joys that she had experienced in her life.Donovan, Stephen. "Franciscan Crown." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 2 May 2021 Among the Friars Minor, the promotion of this devotion is attributed to St. Bonaventure, Bl. Cherubin of Spoleto, St. John Capistran, Pelbart of Temesvár, and St. Bernadine of Siena to mention a few. St. Bernadine is also said to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary when he was meditating on the seven joys of Mary. According to Charles Sammons, OFM Cap., "The Franciscan Crown offers us a chance to meditate on certain mysteries that we do not find in the Dominican Rosary raditional Rosary such as the Adoration of the Magi."Szyszkiewicz, Barb. "Pray the Rosary, Franciscan style", ''Catholic Digest'', May 20, 2020
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Order of prayers

Following a brief period of meditation on each mystery, one

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

and ten

s are prayed in order. It is customary, after the seventh mystery, to pray two more Hail Marys to bring the total number to seventy-two in honor of the tradition that Mary lived for seventy-two years.

References

External links

The story of its origin as well as how to pray it, from a 19th century Franciscan manual
{{Franciscans Rosary Christian religious objects Franciscan orders