The PK and the "rose garden"

As I continue to pray the rosary each day, I thought it would be interesting to do a little research on the history of the rosary. For starters, the word rosary comes from the Latin rosarium meaning "rose garden" or "garland of roses." When is comes to the history of the rosary itself, not everyone agrees. Tradition teaches us that the rosary was given to Saint Dominic when the Virgin Mary appeared to him in 1214. More than 400 years later Saint Alanus de Rupe (St. Alan of the Rock) also received a vision of the Blessed Mother who delivered a message that the rosary needed to be reinstated. St Alan is also credited with having received the 15 mysteries. (It wasn't until Pope Paul II in 2002 that the 5 Luminous Mysteries were added to the 5 Sorrowful, 5 Joyful and 5 Glorious Mysteries.) Many Church historians go all the way back to the 4th century where is was discovered that the Desert Fathers used 'prayer ropes" to count he repetitions of the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner"). Prayer Beads are used by devout people from every major world religion: Islam, Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. That is one big community of believers!