The earliest records of the practice of counting prayers among religions of Western culture can be traced to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is believed that people carried small stones or pebbles in their pockets with which to count prayers.
However, there is evidence that Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam all had traditions of prayer counting that predate this, and these faiths had incorporated a string of beads for this counting.
The history of the rosary in our tradition can be traced back to the time of St Dominic in the south of France in the early 1200s. It is said that Dominic was shown a string of beads by the Virgin Mary and was instructed to preach the rosary among his people to battle against sin and heresy.
It has been a pleasure to work with Fr Kevin, students and staff to plan our Class of 2022 Graduation Eucharist and Ceremony. This significant celebration will focus both on gratitude and the way these students have lived our College theme, In Truth and Action. We are fortunate to be able to mark this rite of passage as a College community in St Dominic’s Church for the first time since 2019 and we wish these students well as they head into their examination period.
