Confraternity of the Rosary

The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary is a Roman Catholic Archconfraternity or spiritual association, under the care and guidance of the Dominican Order. The members of the confraternity strive to pray the entire Holy Rosary weekly.

There is insufficient evidence to establish the existence of any Rosary Confraternity before the last quarter of the fifteenth century. There were Dominican guilds or fraternities, but it is not known if they were connected with the Rosary. Through the preaching of Alanus de Rupe (Alan de la Roche) such associations began to be erected shortly before 1475.

One of the first was erected at Cologne in 1474 by Fr. James Sprenger.

The Perpetual Rosary is an organization for securing the continuous recitation of the Rosary by day and night among a number of associates who perform their allotted share at stated times. This is a development of the Rosary Confraternity, and dates from the seventeenth century.

The Confraternity was last reorganized by Pope Leo XIII in 1898 with the Apostolic Constitution, Ubi Primum.

This archconfraternity is under the administration of the Dominican order, as is the Confraternity of the Holy Name and The Confraternity of Angelic Warfare. Thus no new confraternity may be erected without the sanction of the Dominican Master General. In the "patent of erection", which is issued for each new confraternity by the General of the Dominicans, a clause is added granting to all members enrolled therein "a participation in all the good works which by the grace of God are performed throughout the world by the brethren and sisters of the said [Dominican] Order."

Throughout the world, the Archconfraternity is administered by the different Provinces of the Dominican order. In the United States, the Eastern Dominican Province (Province of St. Joseph) has its Confraternity based in Columbus, Ohio. The Rosary Confraternity of the Western Dominican Province (Province of the Holy Name of Jesus) is based in Portland, Oregon at their Rosary Center. The Rosary Confraternity is probably the largest organization of this type within the Catholic Church.

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Wikipedia