Padre Pio/Origin of the rosary

Q On Sept. 23 we celebrated the memorial of Padre Pio.  I understand he had the stigmata?  What is that?

A  Father William Saunders wrote an article on this subject: “What is the Stigmata?”  In his article he states: “The stigmata is the spontaneous appearance of the wound marks of our crucified Lord on a person’s body. These marks include the nail wounds at the feet and the hands, the lance wound at the side, the head wounds from the crown of thorns and the scourge marks over the entire body, particularly the back. A stigmatic (i.e. the person suffering from the stigmata) may have one, several or all of these wound marks. Moreover, the marks may be visible or invisible, and they may be permanent, periodic or temporary in appearance.”
The wounds appear suddenly and conform to Christ’s wounds that he endured during his Passion.  They bleed especially on days when our Lord’s Passion is remembered (such as Fridays and Good Friday) emitting clean and pure blood without harm to the person even though the blood flow may be great at times. It can be very painful.  Medication cannot heal these wounds.  
On Aug. 5, 1918, Padre Pio had a vision that he was pierced with a lance.  Then about a month later, he received the wounds of Jesus in his hands and feet.  Each day, he lost about a cup of blood but the wounds never healed or festered, and a sweet odor came from his wounds instead of the smell of blood.  Padre Pio suffered with the stigmata for about 50 years.  
Other stigmatics include St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John of God, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich and St. Faustina Kowalska.  This number might be a bit dated (it’s hard to find up to date statistics on this sort of thing), but according to a study in the early 20th century, out of 321 known stigmatics from the 13th century until the time of the study, only 41 of them had been men.  
For more information, Google:  What is the Stigmata? by Father  Saunders.

Q What is the origin of the rosary?  How is St. Dominic involved?

A  Before the rosary was popularized, many religions used some method of counting prayers.  Christian monks and hermits would gather stones and as they said each prayer they would throw one away.  Eventually, strings of beads or berries or similar objects were used.  An early development of the rosary began with the monks who were in the practice of reciting the Psalter (the 150 Psalms).  There was a desire to pass on a similar devotion to the lay people but because most could not read 150 Our Fathers were prayed instead of reading the Psalms.  
Marian devotion followed a similar pattern, with some reciting the words of the angel Gabriel, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you” 150 times while counting each prayer on a set of beads.  Eventually, the Marian Psalter was developed by the Cistercians (an order of monks and nuns), which involved praying 150 Hail Marys divided into groups by the Our Father prayer.  Beads were used to keep track of the Hail Marys.
In the early 13th century, Dominic Guzman (St. Dominic) was preaching in France against the Albigensian heresy that taught that all material things were evil.  He was having little success.  According to tradition, he went into the forest and prayed for help on how to bring the heretics back to Jesus.  The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him to preach her Psalter to the people.  
At this time the prayers were not meditative, so Mary revealed to him which mysteries (stories of Jesus’ life) should be preached to correspond to the Psalter prayers.  St. Dominic went on to preach the mysteries of the rosary and converted many Albigensians.
Father Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, the great Dominican theologian of the 20th century, said, “What the word of the preacher (St. Dominic) was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts.” Ultimately, that “sweet prayer” would come to be called the rosary – a “wreath of roses.” 
The rosary is a powerful prayer.  Pray it often.  Satan hates it!  So, we should love it!!

Deacon George Hooper is a deacon assistant at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs. He can be reached at [email protected].