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Foreword

The image in the banner at the top of each page shows Mary cradling her Son after His terrible suffering and death on the cross. I earnestly hope this heart-rending picture may remind us of the urgent need in these dark days for daily prayer and penance. My aim is to offer the words and images on this site as just such a prayer of expiation; I place them confidently in the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary, entreating her to intercede with her Son on our behalf. The prayers are offered in adoration and praise, in thanksgiving, but especially in reparation for sins, begging God to have mercy on the soul of the author and to protect his family members.*

The Rosarium Aureum: the Golden Rosary

The 'rosary' has been likened unto a garland of fragrant flowers offered to Mary, the 'Mystical Rose', mother of our Divine Saviour and our own most gentle Queen and Mother. The flowers in the garland are our prayers, wherein we meditate upon the chief events (or 'mysteries') in the life of her Son. In another sense, the chaplet is a life-line or life-preserver offered by our Mother to draw us back to the Ark of Salvation.

'The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.' -Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima (1907-2005)

'The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…' Pius XI (Pope from 1922-1939)

'Here is an example to help you understand the efficacy of the Rosary. You remember the story of David who vanquished Goliath. What steps did the young Israelite take to overthrow the giant? He struck him in the middle of the forehead with a pebble from his sling. If we regard the Philistine as representing evil and all its powers: heresy, impurity, pride, we can consider the little stones from the sling capable of overthrowing the enemy as symbolizing the Aves of the Rosary.'  Dom Columba Marmion (1858-1923), Christ, the Ideal of the Priest.

The beads of a rosary are typically divided into five decades (sets of ten). I see these five decades as five Acts in a supernatural drama. The first scene opens, dramatically enough, with the Incarnation of our Divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, at the Annunciation. Our Lady remains with us to present the principal events of her Son's earthly life, culminating with His Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. The story continues with her own Assumption into Heaven and the Second Coming of her Son at the end of this world, for the General Judgement of the living and the dead.

The Golden Rosary was popular towards the end of the ages of Christendom, a thousand years lasting from the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity until the Lutheran revolt in Western Europe and the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453.

This site presents the five decades of the Golden Rosary in full. Each mystery is accompanied by its Latin verse and an English verse translation. Scripture excerpts have been included under separate tabs. The illustrations are beautiful and haunting images taken from the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by J J Tissot.** They are reproduced  courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum: see Copyright. All images are by Tissot except where otherwise stated.


* EEKPTEE and EA. I have disguised the names to respect their privacy on this public site.
** Please remember to pray for Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902):  REQUIEM aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.