Mysteries of the Rosary: all fifteen with Bible reference and day of the week

Ten beads slip through the fingers, and with each one the Angel’s greeting returns. What carries this prayer are the mysteries of the Rosary: fifteen events from the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of His holy Mother, arranged in three sets. This guide sets out all fifteen with the clause you add in the Hail Mary after “Jesus”, with the Bible reference and the day of the week. It also tells how the order came about and why the feast of the Rosary falls on 7 October.

What are the mysteries of the Rosary?

The mysteries of the Rosary are fifteen events from the life of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin, from the Annunciation to the Coronation of Our Lady in heaven. For each mystery one prays a decade while reflecting on what God has done for our redemption.

A decade is a group of ten: one Our Father on the large bead, ten Hail Marys on the small ones, and the Glory Be at the end. The word mystery stands for the Latin mysterium. It does not mean a riddle, but a saving deed of God that faith contemplates. The lessons of the Roman Breviary for the feast of the Rosary sum this up in a single sentence:

“The Rosary is a certain form of prayer in which we separate fifteen decades of the Angelic Salutation from one another by the Lord’s Prayer inserted between them, and at each of them ponder in devout meditation one of as many mysteries of our redemption.”

Breviarium Romanum, 7 October, fourth lesson · our translation from the Latin

A rosary of five decades therefore covers one of the three sets. Whoever prays all three sets in one day has prayed the whole Rosary.

Which mysteries of the Rosary are prayed on which day?

According to the traditional order, the Joyful Mysteries are prayed on Monday and Thursday, the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesday and Friday, and the Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. In this way each of the three sets returns at least twice a week.

The order follows the meaning of the days of the week. Friday, the day on which Our Lord was crucified, belongs to the Sorrowful Mysteries, and Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, to the Glorious. In our Rosary prayer guide the set for the current day is highlighted, and you can pray along bead by bead.

What are the Joyful Mysteries?

The Joyful Mysteries contemplate the Incarnation of the Son of God and His childhood: the Annunciation, the Visitation of Elizabeth, the Nativity at Bethlehem, the Presentation in the Temple and the Finding of the twelve-year-old Saviour. All five are found in the first two chapters of the Gospel according to St Luke.

Pope Leo XIII saw in these five mysteries a model for family life. In his encyclical Laetitiae sanctae of 8 September 1893 he sets the house of Nazareth before the eyes of the faithful: simplicity and purity of morals, harmony, patient industry that is content with little, and the peace of a quiet conscience (no. 6).

What are the Sorrowful Mysteries?

The Sorrowful Mysteries follow the Passion of Our Lord from the Mount of Olives to His death on the Cross: the Agony with the sweat of blood, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion. They are prayed on Tuesday and on Friday, the weekday of the Crucifixion.

Leo XIII recommended this set as a remedy against the shrinking from everything that is hard and painful. Whoever has learnt from youth to dwell on the Sorrowful Mysteries, he wrote, sees Our Lord overwhelmed with sadness and finds there new courage to bear the burden of work and suffering (Laetitiae sanctae, nos. 7 and 8).

What are the Glorious Mysteries?

The Glorious Mysteries contemplate the victory of Our Lord and the glorification of His Mother: the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven and her Coronation. They are prayed on Wednesday, on Saturday and on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection.

Holy Scripture recounts no event of its own for the Assumption of Our Lady. On 1 November 1950 Pius XII defined as a dogma revealed by God that the Immaculate Mother of God, having completed the course of her earthly life, “was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory” (Munificentissimus Deus, no. 44). On the feast of the Rosary the Breviary sings the verse from the Apocalypse about the woman with the crown of twelve stars: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

Leo XIII called the Glorious Mysteries a light against forgetfulness of eternal life. They teach, he said, that death is not an end but a passage from life to life (Laetitiae sanctae, no. 14).

How do you pray the mysteries in the Hail Mary?

In the Rosary each mystery is added as a short clause after the name “Jesus” in the ten Hail Marys of the decade. The prayer then continues as usual with “Holy Mary, Mother of God”. In this way the meditation stays present in every single Hail Mary.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, whom thou, O Virgin, didst conceive of the Holy Ghost. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary with the first Joyful Mystery, following the MarcellusOnlineShop prayer guide; the inserted clause is our translation of the German custom

A decade is prayed in four steps:

1. Before the decade, announce the mystery, for example the Annunciation.
2. On the large bead, pray an Our Father.
3. On the ten small beads, pray ten Hail Marys, each with the added clause.
4. Close with the Glory Be, the Fatima Prayer and “O Mary, conceived without sin”.

Before the five decades come the Sign of the Cross and the Apostles’ Creed, then the Glory Be and the Our Father, three Hail Marys for faith, hope and charity, and the Glory Be once more. At the end follow the Hail, Holy Queen and the Prayer to St Michael the Archangel. For this prayer we knot rosaries by hand, in paracord, wood and stone.

Where do the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary come from?

According to the tradition of the Church, the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary go back to St Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers. In the late Middle Ages the meditation on particular mysteries was added to the 150 Hail Marys of Our Lady’s Psalter; the Roman Breviary counts fifteen.

On the feast of the Rosary the Breviary relates that Dominic, in his struggle against the heresy of the Albigensians around Toulouse, implored the Blessed Virgin and was admonished by her to preach the Rosary. It adds of its own accord: ut memoriae proditum est, “as has been handed down”. Leo XIII took up this tradition in 1883:

“By divine inspiration and divine prompting he well knew that, with the help of this prayer, a mighty instrument of war, the faithful would be able to conquer and defeat their enemies […].”

Leo XIII, Supremi apostolatus officio, 1 September 1883, no. 3 in the English numbering · our translation of the Italian version

St Pius V, himself a Dominican, described the form of prayer on 17 September 1569 in Consueverunt Romani Pontifices: the Angelic Salutation one hundred and fifty times after the number of the Psalms of David, the Lord’s Prayer with each decade, and in between meditations that set the whole life of Our Lord Jesus Christ before the eyes. Dominic, as is piously believed, took up this manner of prayer at the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and spread it. According to the testimony of Leo XIII, Sixtus IV had already recommended this manner of prayer, because it promoted the honour of God and of the Virgin and averted dangers.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 records that series of 50 and 150 Hail Marys were already prayed before Dominic and that the meditation on particular mysteries was added later. It names as their originator a Carthusian, Dominic of Prussia.

What does the Battle of Lepanto have to do with the Rosary?

At the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 the united fleets of the Pope, Spain, Venice and Genoa under Don John of Austria defeated the Ottoman fleet. On the same day the Rosary confraternities held their customary devotions of supplication. In thanksgiving Pius V instituted the feast that became the feast of the Rosary.

Pius V had called the Christian princes to a common defence and Christendom to prayer for the help of the Mother of God (Leo XIII, Supremi apostolatus officio, no. 4). He had the anniversary kept as the feast of Our Lady of Victory. In 1573 Gregory XIII gave it the title of the Rosary, at first for churches with an altar of the Rosary. In 1716, after a further victory in Hungary, Clement XI extended it to the whole Church.

For a long time it was celebrated on the first Sunday of October. With the motu proprio Abhinc duos annos of St Pius X of 23 October 1913 and the implementing decree of the Congregation of Rites, such Sunday feasts were moved to their fixed calendar day; the external solemnity of the Rosary was allowed to remain on the first Sunday of October. In the 1962 calendar the feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands on 7 October as a feast of the second class.

Lepanto was the first great defeat of the Ottoman fleet at sea, but it did not decide the war: the very next year a new fleet appeared off Modon. For 12,000 to 15,000 Christian oarsmen who had served as slaves in the galleys, the day brought freedom.

In 1883 Leo XIII dedicated the whole month of October to the Queen of the Rosary, repeated the instruction in 1884 and added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation “Queen of the most holy Rosary”. The historical lessons of the feast close with the petition that the Mother of God, who, implored through the prayers of the Rosary, so often helped to overcome earthly enemies, may also help to vanquish those of hell. Our Combat Rosaries, including a replica of the soldiers’ rosary from the First World War, recall this spiritual combat.

Mentioned in this article Passion Rosary Hand-knotted from black 550 paracord, with onyx and agate beads, the Holy Face of Christ and a Passion crucifix from Italy. View the rosary

Frequently asked questions about the mysteries of the Rosary