The Life of St. Francis of Assisi
Did you know there was a Franciscan Crown Rosary?
The Franciscan rosary, or as it is properly called,
The Franciscan Crown, dates to the early part of the
15th century. At that time a young man who found
spiritual joy in weaving a crown of wild flowers for a
beautiful statue of Mary decided to enter the
Franciscan Order. After entering the community, however,
he was saddened when he no longer found the time to
gather flowers for his personal devotion.
One
evening, while feeling tempted to abandon his vocation,
he received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The
Virgin Mother encouraged the young novice to
persevere by reminding him of the joyfulness of the
Franciscan spirit. She also instructed him to
meditate daily on seven joyful events from her own life
as a new form of the rosary. (The Annunciation, The
Visitation, The Nativity of Jesus, The Adoration of
the Magi, The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple,
The Appearance of the Risen Christ to His Mother,
The Assumption and Coronation of Mary as Queen of
Heaven)
Instead of a crown of flowers, the
novice would now weave a crown of prayers. Before
long, many other Franciscans began to pray the Crown and
soon it spread to the entire Order, becoming
officially established in 1422.
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