IL ROSARIO FIORENTINO/

THE FLORENTINE ROSARY

Della Robbia Madonna

This Web Essay introduces the beginner to the Rosary, to Florentine contemplative art , and to the Italian texts of these prayers, presenting these in the two languages. We participate in the Fifteen Mysteries, sharing in their telling of the tale, of the Gospel, from the participation in them of Jesus' Mother, Mary, and from her perspective, through her eyes, piercing her heart. In the paintings by Fra Angelico, we see a theological use of light, Christ being 'Ego sum lux mundi', 'I am the Light of the World', whose light fills the darkness. Likewise, terra cotta, the baked red earth, of the Della Robbias, with its glaze, becomes heavenly, Italian having the same words for heaven, sky, blue . In the Annunciation to Mary and in the Prayer in the Garden, we see both Mary and Jesus in the act of prayer, which is our own act. Compare with earlier forms of such prayer, as in Julian's day, the Rosary not yet being in full use, with the Great O Advent Antiphons , with Birgitta's Four Prayers , and with the XV Os . Be present with Mary and with other lovers of God at each scene in turn. So had the Roman Empress Helena , the Spanish nun Egeria , Jerome's Paula and Eustochium , and Sweden's Birgitta and Catherine, imaged themselves back in time when in those Holy Places, sharing in their telling of this tale, this Gospel. These are Sacred Conversations. So should be the Rosary.

Della Robbia Garland of Florentine Fruit and Greenery

Ad ogni mistero un Pater, dieci Ave, un Gloria.

The Rosary begins with the Sign of the Cross + and the Creed said on the Crucifix:

Io credo in Dio, Padre onnipotente, creatore del cielo e della terra. E in Gesù Cristo, suo unico Figlio, nostro Signore, il quale fu concepito di Spirito Santo, nacque da Maria Vergine, patì sotto Ponzio Pilato, fu crocefisso, morì e fu sepolto; discese agli inferi; il terzo giorno risuscitò da morte; salì al cielo, siede alla destra di Dio Padre onnipotente; di là verrà a giudicare i vivi e i morti. Credo nello Spirito Santo, la santa Chiesa cattolica, la comunione dei Santi, la remissione dei peccati, la resurrezione della carne, la vita eterna. Amen

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints; the Forgiveness of Sins; the Resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Padre nostro, che sei nei cieli, sia santificato il tuo nome, venga il tuo regno, sia fatta la tua volontà come in cielo così in terra. Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano, e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori, e non ci indurre in tentazione ma liberaci dal male. Amen

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy Name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Ave Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. Santa Maria, madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Weekdays: On Monday we say the Rosary with the Five Joyful Mysteries, on Tuesday the Five Sorrowful Mysteries, on Wednesday the Five Glorious Mysteries, on Thursday the Five Joyful Mysteries, on Friday the Five Sorrowful Mysteries, on Saturday the Five Glorious Mysteries

Seasons: On Sunday at Christmas/Epiphany the Five Joyful Mysteries; at Lent/Advent the Five Sorrowful Mysteries; and from Easter until Advent the Five Glorious Mysteries.

MISTERI GAUDIOSI (lunedì-giovedì)

On Monday and Thursday we say the Rosary with the Five Joyful Mysteries

1. L'annunciazione dell'Angelo a Maria Vergine/The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary

The Angelic Salutations are prayed upon each bead, first three, then ten in each of the five decades:

Ave Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. Santa Maria, madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

2. La visita di Maria Vergine a Santa Elisabetta/The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
 

Luca Della Robbia, San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia

3. La nascita di Gesù nella capanna di Betlemme/ Jesus' Nativity in the Bethlehem Stable

4. La presentazione del Bambino Gesù nel tempio/ The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

5. Il ritrovamento di Gesù nel tempio fra i dottori/ Finding Jesus amongst the Temple Doctors

MISTERI DOLOROSI (martedì-domenica)

On Tuesday and Sunday we say the Rosary with the Five Sorrowful Mysteries

1. L'orazione di Gesù nell'orto degli ulivi/ Jesus Praying in the Garden of Olives

2. La flagellazione di Gesù alla colonna/ Jesus Whipped at the Column

3. Gesù è incoronato di spine / Jesus Mocked and Crowned with Thorns

4. Gesù sale il Calvario carico della Croce/ Jesus Carries the Cross to Calvary

5. La morte di Gesù in croce / Jesus Dies on the Cross

See also Fra Angelico, The Crucifix

MISTERI GLORIOSI (mercoledì-sabato-domenica)

On Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday we say the Rosary with the Five Glorious Mysteries

1. La resurrezione di Gesù / Jesus' Resurrection

2. L'ascensione di Gesù al Cielo / Jesus' Ascension to Heaven

3. La discesa dello Spirito Santo su Maria Vergine e gli Apostoli/ Pentecost to the Virgin and Apostles

4. L'assunzione di Maria Vergine in Cielo/ Assumption of the Virgin to Heaven

5. L'inconorazione di Maria Vergine e la gloria degli Angeli e dei Santi/ Coronation of the Virgin

Early Christian prayers were really the prayers that Jesus' mother had taught him, Hebrew Psalms, Jewish Prayers, binding on the Name of God, as with the Jewish phylacteries of Deuteronomy, blessing God, praising God, thanking God, the King of the Universe, whose heirs we are. Celtic prayers continued that sense of binding back into Creation the sacred name of the Creator, as in 'I bind unto myself this day the strong Name of the Trinity', in the lovely line in St Patrick's Lorica, St Patrick's Breastplate, lines which are continued in our own time amongst the Scottish Islanders singing the prayers of the Carmina Gadelicain Gaelic and English.

Christianity had flourished along the African shores of the Mediterranean. Then that region and Spain fell under Islam. In the Reconquista a new order of Friars came into being, the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans, founded by the Spanish St Dominic, O.P. (1170-1221). When one fights against an enemy one becomes much like one's enemy. Christianity adopted the delicate tracery of Islam at this time of the Crusades, giving us Europe's paradigm shift from Romanesque to Gothic. The Dominicans likewise at this time gave us the Rosary, adapting it from Islamic prayer beads. For the laity these 150 Invocations of the Rosary took the place of the 150 Psalms of the clergy, the Rosary becoming the 'Poor Man's Psalter'. One loves to hear the voices of Irish nuns in Paris praying the Rosary together before the Blessed Sacrament.

The Rosary binds the teller of its beads into the life of Christ through the eyes and heart of his Mother. We see him through her, joying in him, sorrowing with him, triumphing with him - and her. Fra Angelico, active 1417-1455, was both the Prior of San Domenico in Fiesole and a brilliant artist who frescoed the friars' cells at San Marco, in Florence, and who also painted scenes of the life of Christ through the eyes and presence of his Mother Mary, for the great Florentine Order, the Servi di Santa Maria, the Servites, placing these scenes on the chest for offerings made to them. The Servite Order had begun with seven rich merchants seeing a vision of Mary on Monte Senario near Florence, 1233.

Many of the scenes of the Fra Angelico chest correspond with the mysteries of the Rosary, narrating the life of Christ through the eyes and heart of his joying and sorrowing Mother. Other scenes come to us from the glazed terra cotta work of the Della Robbias. Both Fra Angelico and the Della Robbias used as the models for their paintings the ordinary people about themselves, placing them in Sacred Conversation with God. Similarly, the Rosary binds together God and his created, mortal people, fashioned in his sacred image, together sharing in birth, death, and Resurrection, their sorrow with his joy, women and men, the Laity and the Clergy. Let us be like Mary, treasuring all these things in our heart, Luke 2.51. In so doing we also mirror reflect Julian in prayer in Norwich, Catherine in prayer in Siena, Umilta` in prayer in Florence, Clare in prayer in Assisi, and a great cloud of witnesses through time to the presence of the Creator in Creation.

The Angelus

As an Anglican nun for four years, I was forbidden the Rosary, until Anglican Father Robert Llewellyn taught it to me, but instead prayed the Angelus, three times daily. I was even the Angelus Sister ringing that bell, like Beatrice's Nine , at six at dawn, at noon, at eight in the evening. First the three threes, then the nine, letting the momentum of the second and the eighth pull carry the chapel bell into the third and ninth chimes. A bell that had been rung for a hundred years by Anglican Sisters of the Community of the Holy Family , including by my teachers when I had been a schoolchild there.

Angelus Domini nuntiavi Mariae. - Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. Ave Maria.

L'Angelo del Signore portò l'annunzio a Maria. - Ed ella concepì per opera dello Spirito Santo. Ave Maria.

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary: And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with thee, Blessed art though among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Ecce ancilla Domini. - Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Ave Maria.

Eccomi, sono la serva del Signore. - Si compia in me la tua parola. Ave Maria.

Behold the Handmaid of the Lord: Be it unto me according to they word.

Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with thee, Blessed art though among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Et Verbum caro factum est. - Et habitavit in nobis. Ave Maria.

E il verbo si fece carne. - E venne ad abitare in mezzo a noi. Ave Maria.

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with thee, Blessed art though among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Or pro nobis sancta Dei Genitrix. - Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. Oremus.

Prega per noi, santa Madre di Dio. Perché siamo resi degni delle promesse di Cristo. Preghiamo.

Pray for us, holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray.

Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde, ut qui angelo nuntiante, Christi Filli tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Infondi nel nostro spirito la tua grazia, o Padre; tu, che nell'annunzio dell'angelo ci hai rivelato l'incarnazione del tuo Figlio, per la sua passione e la sua croce guidaci alla gloria della resurreziione. Per Christo nostro Signore. Amen.

We beseech Thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the Incarnation of Thy son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by His Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of His Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For John Paul II on the Rosary Link ~

For Rosary in Spanish and other languages Link ~
 

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