The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a meditative and contemplative prayer, based on the Scriptures, about events of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Mary.

The Rosary prayer was given, by the Blessed Virgin Mary, to Saint Dominic in 1214 as a weapon against heresy and for conversion.

Pope Pius V, at the time of the Battle of Lepanto (1571), made a request to all Christians to pray the Rosary with the intention to bring upon victory over the Ottoman Empire. After victory was achieved, the Feast of Our Lady of Victory on October 7 was established and posteriorly renamed Feast of the Holy Rosary.

The Rosary has an original 15 decades structure – Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries – which was approved by Pope St. Pius V (1569) with the Papal Bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices. In October 2002, Pope St. John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries, or "Mysteries of Light", through his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.