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Rosary, Brothers of the.

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The troubles which came upon Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries led to the forming of pious associations which sought to secure the averting of such evils by means of prayer to God; and the brotherhoods of the rosary were among the earliest of these unions. Pope Leo's bull Pastoris Eterni, of Oct. 6, 1520, shows that they had then become old. The popes Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, and Clement VII conferred on them valuable exemptions, which were confirmed by Sixtus V. The Brothers of the Rosary displayed great zeal during the contests of Western Europe with the Turks, and aided the warriors with their prayers; and after the victory of Lepanto they instituted processions in honor of the Virgin Mary. The festival instituted by Pius V in commemoration of that victory was consequently called "the Feast of the Rosary."

A modern organization called "the Living Rosary" consists of unions of fifteen persons each, who severally pray the decades of the rosary which have been assigned to them respectively.