Honorius III, Gregory IX, and the First Documents on the Rosary (Doctrina Pontificia IV, nn. 122-131)

The popes Honorius III (1216-1227), Gregory IX (1227-1241), and Innocent IV (1243-1254) are contemporaries of the flourishing of the great mendicant orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, and of the first forms of the Rosary. The pontificate of Gregory IX definitively approved the Dominican Order and, with it, the first confraternities of the Rosary. Documents nn. 122-131 cover this period.

Honorius III (1216-1227)

Honorius III approved the Rule of Saint Dominic (1216) and the Rule of Saint Francis (1223), the two founders of the orders that contributed most to medieval Mariology and to the Rosary. The pontificate of Honorius III produced no Marian documents with a number of their own in the Doctrina Pontificia IV, but it is the ecclesial context in which the Marian devotions of the thirteenth century were born.

Gregory IX (1227-1241)

Gregory IX, the pope who canonized Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, actively promoted Marian devotion in the mendicant orders. His pontificate has no specific numbered document, but it is the context in which Saint Dominic (already canonized) begins to be associated, in the hagiographical traditions, with the Rosary as his creation.

Urban IV (1261-1264), nn. 126-127

The pope who created the feast of Corpus Christi (1264, with the hymn of Saint Thomas Aquinas Pange Lingua) and also the pope of the first pontifical document on the Rosary. N. 127 states:

“Psalterii beatae Mariae Virginis recitatio, quae Rosarium vulgo nuncupatur, fideles ad contemplandum mysteria fidei per interpositas Angélicas Salutationes iuvat ac reficit”

The recitation of the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is commonly called the Rosary, helps and restores the faithful in contemplating the mysteries of the faith by means of the interposed Angelic Salutations.

Second Council of Lyons (1274), n. 128: Profession of Faith

The Second Council of Lyons (1274), presided over by the same Gregory X who invited Saint Thomas Aquinas (who died on the way), produced a Marian profession of faith for the Eastern delegates. The Marian clause of the Second Council of Lyons is one of the most important texts of ecumenical rapprochement with the Orthodox Church in medieval history.

Nicholas IV (1288-1292), n. 129: Bull of the Rosary

Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope in history (1288), is logically favorable to Franciscan Marian devotion. His Bull of 1288 (n. 129) grants special privileges to the confraternities of the Rosary, which is paradoxical for a Franciscan pope, since the Rosary was rather a Dominican devotion. But Nicholas IV shows that, in the thirteenth century, the Rosary had already transcended the limits of a single order to become a universal Christian devotion.

Benedict XI (1303-1304), n. 130: “Dum levamus”

Benedict XI, a Dominican (like Benedict XIII four hundred years later), produced an important Marian document: the Bull Dum levamus (February 11, 1304) on the confraternities of the Rosary and their spiritual privileges. The title “Dum levamus” (While we raise) refers to the apostolate of preaching the Rosary as “raising” the faithful to the contemplation of the mysteries of Christ.

Further reading

Explore Mariology, the Rosarium Virginis Mariae (John Paul II, 2002), the posts on Saint Pius V and the Rosary and Gregory XIII.

Learn how to pray the Rosary in our guide: How to Pray the Rosary, Step by Step.