Why pray the Rosary — and where did it come from?

The first half of the Hail Mary is made of two greetings from Luke's Gospel: the angel's and Elizabeth's.

The Our Father is the prayer Jesus taught.

The mysteries are Gospel events: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana, the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and more.

Early monks prayed all 150 Psalms. Lay people who could not read prayed 150 Our Fathers or Hail Marys instead, counting them on strings of beads.

In the 15th century, Dominic of Prussia, a Carthusian monk, attached a short thought about Jesus' life to each Hail Mary; the Dominican Alan de la Roche spread the Rosary through confraternities.

A well-known tradition says Our Lady gave the Rosary to St Dominic in the 13th century. Historians note that this story first appears in the 15th century; the Rosary grew gradually.

St Pius V fixed its traditional form in 1569. After the victory at Lepanto (1571), attributed by many to the Rosary, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (7 October) was established.

In 2002 St John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries, from Jesus' public life.

The Catechism calls the Rosary an epitome of the whole Gospel, quoting St Paul VI.

Medieval piety developed the Rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours.

The Rosary is a devotion warmly recommended by the Church, but not an obligation.