I think that I mentioned before that during one of my phases of searching for "Authentic Original Christianity"™ that I stumbled upon a thing calling itself Celtic Christianity of the Orthodox flavor. It was during this time that I somehow came across a website offering free rosaries. Obviously, I ordered some.
I think they came in like packages of five rosaries. They were little plastic deals, plastic beads, plastic cross, etc. The package also came with instructions on how to pray the rosary.
I tried for a bit to pray the rosary a few different times. I just couldn't get over praying to Mary because I had it ingrained in me since I was an infant that such a thing just was not done. Praying to the rest of the Saints came a lot easier to me than any Marian devotion.
I think this is because the role of Mary was so downplayed in the churches I went to and the schools in which I was enrolled. Mary was just a woman to them, except at Christmas time when she was a clueless woman. I digress.
Anyway. I never could just stick to the rosary - it was entirely too Catholic for me at a time that I wasn't entirely Catholic.
I did even pick up - or rather found - a rosary made out of green 550 cord (parachute cord for those not familiar) and a metal crucifix while on my first deployment. I loved that thing. I can't remember where I found it, but I usually left it by the door of my room when I'd go out on missions (nylon is not flame resistant), and would try to pray the rosary in my off time.
I think this might be why I became even more interested in ancient Christianity that ultimately lead me to the Orthodox Church.
I loved that rosary, and I wish that I still had it, but I left it in Iraq in hopes that it might help someone else. I really hope that it helped someone else.
So, anyway, where does that lead to in this article blog post story thing?
Well, obviously I have a bit of a nostalgic memory of the rosary, though I was often trash at trying to pray it.
But, in the Orthodox Church, I was told that we have no such thing as the rosary is a Catholic thing. We have our prayer ropes and different prayers to use while using said ropes.
The rosary was supposedly revealed to a Catholic saint in the 13th century (Saint Dominic, for those interested). But knotted prayer ropes have been used to track repeated prayers for centuries either originating with Saint Anthony the Great (father of monasticism) in the 3rd-4th centuries or Saint Pachomius in the 5th century. It is probably likely that the rosary evolved out of these earlier prayer ropes (supposed Marian revelation aside).
But again, there was supposedly no such thing as an Orthodox rosary as the rosary in the West didn't come about until after the Great Schism. I can't say that I was terribly disappointed since I never could bring myself to fully commit myself to any kind of Marian devotion (something that I still struggle with - possibly because of underlying issues with my own mother).
However, since hearing about the various Western Rite Orthodox vicariates I have heard that there are those who converted from Catholicism or Anglicanism who still pray the rosary - and of course, there are those who ask if there is an Orthodox equivalent.
This then exposed me to a bunch of different blog articles and forum posts about The Rule of Theotokos as given by Saint Seraphim of Sarov - a 19th century Russian saint.
So this rule is quite interesting in that information about it is actually pretty sparse.
According to most blog articles, Wikipedia posts, and even encyclopedia articles, this rule was originally given to monks by the Theotokos in the 8th century, and was widely popular. For whatever reason, the rule fell into disuse and was lost until the Theotokos revealed it again to Saint Seraphim in the 19th century.
Supposed Marian revelation aside, you'd think that there would be some kind of historical evidence for such a thing back in the 8th century, since this rule was supposedly widespread and popular. But the only references that I can find for such a thing come from a disciple of a different Saint Seraphim - who was also a disciple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. There are some other sources (in Russian) that make this same claim, but they are all in relation to Saint Seraphim of Sarov.
I could cite a bunch of the sources here, but what would be the point? Instead, I'll link to the Wikipedia page. There is only one source listed in the article, you can access it using the Wayback Machine, but it is in Russian. There is also a PDF version linked at the bottom of the article, which also has to be accessed through the Wayback Machine.
Also, supposedly (I've used that word and its variants quite a bit) the Encyclopedia of Orthodoxy published in Moscow in 2003 had an excerpt that talked about Saint Seraphim and his Rule of the Theotokos and again mentioned the revelation in the 8th century.
Here is this supposed excerpt.
Honestly, for something that was supposedly so widespread you would think that we would have some evidence for it to have existed. Maybe there is evidence somewhere and it is lost to time.
Also, I have searched for versions of the Encyclopedia of Orthodoxy, but I can not find the 2003 version. I believe they have a website now. The website lists this under its entry of the Bogorodychnoye pravilo (Rule of the Theotokos),
I don't speak Russian, so I apologize for any weird translation errors - Google only gets you so far.
It seems to me that this Rule was developed of original prayers from monks ages ago that were, at first, the 150 Psalms, then for those who could not read (this is a reason that icons and other things were extremely popular, illiteracy was rampant and not many could read) this was made into 150 Our Fathers with the Angelic Salutation (Hail Mary) being added or substituted as well. These prayers then probably evolved into the rosary as we know it today in the West - and different forms in the East (it's not just the Jesus Prayer that is counted on prayer ropes). In fact, I have a source from the Antiochian Archdiocese that agrees with me (OrthodoxWest).
It also seems to me that the Rule, as it is now, probably entered into Orthodox usage because of the Roman Catholic rosary.
Now then, all of that being said, what does that mean for any Orthodox wanting to pray this Rule? Obviously - at least to me - the current version in use is based on the Catholic Rosary. If an older version exists then I can not find it; perhaps the original version was truly lost as is claimed.
One of the reasons that I've heard for Orthodox to not pray the rosary is for some decidedly non-Orthodox elements, such as when meditating on the mysteries the person is supposed to visualize those mysteries. Apparently Orthodox aren't big in using one's imagination to visualize during prayer - something to do with demonic delusions and pride. I can completely understand this, and when I pray I try not to visualize anything while still meditating on the words.
Not visualizing isn't that hard for me as I did not come from a background that practiced such things during prayer anyway (at least not to my knowledge).
However! From what I can tell of this Rule the imaginations and visualizations are left out while contemplating these mysteries. And, given that the rosary formed from earlier devotions of repetitious prayers as noted above, I don't necessarily think that it would be unOrthodox to pray this Rule of the Theotokos, and obviously the jurisdiction I fall under for everything (including my Oblation) agrees with me in this instance.
So, on the Rule of the Theotokos... Is it Orthodox? Yes, it was given to us by an Orthodox Saint (saints are not infallible, however). It is listed in a Russian Orthodox encyclopedia as used in private devotions. And it is listed in some works of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate for the Western Rite faithful to use.
Is it an ancient rule? Not that I can determine, at least it's current form doesn't seem to be ancient - unless you count the 19th century as being ancient. The best that I can determine is that it evolved, as mentioned above, from regularly reciting 150 Hail Marys, and influenced by the Roman Catholic rosary - which also evolved from earlier devotions.
Was it truly revealed to Saint Seraphim of Sarov by the Theotokos? That is between St. Seraphim, the Theotokos, and God.
Can this rule be prayed by Orthodox faithful? Ask your priest or spiritual confessor before adding anything to your prayer rule, go by what they tell you.
In conclusion to this long post, or TL;DR, if you prefer. Is the Rule of the Theotokos Orthodox? Yes. Is it ancient? Probably not it's current form. Can you pray it? Ask your priest.
I think they came in like packages of five rosaries. They were little plastic deals, plastic beads, plastic cross, etc. The package also came with instructions on how to pray the rosary.
I tried for a bit to pray the rosary a few different times. I just couldn't get over praying to Mary because I had it ingrained in me since I was an infant that such a thing just was not done. Praying to the rest of the Saints came a lot easier to me than any Marian devotion.
I think this is because the role of Mary was so downplayed in the churches I went to and the schools in which I was enrolled. Mary was just a woman to them, except at Christmas time when she was a clueless woman. I digress.
Anyway. I never could just stick to the rosary - it was entirely too Catholic for me at a time that I wasn't entirely Catholic.
I did even pick up - or rather found - a rosary made out of green 550 cord (parachute cord for those not familiar) and a metal crucifix while on my first deployment. I loved that thing. I can't remember where I found it, but I usually left it by the door of my room when I'd go out on missions (nylon is not flame resistant), and would try to pray the rosary in my off time.
I think this might be why I became even more interested in ancient Christianity that ultimately lead me to the Orthodox Church.
I loved that rosary, and I wish that I still had it, but I left it in Iraq in hopes that it might help someone else. I really hope that it helped someone else.
So, anyway, where does that lead to in this article blog post story thing?
Well, obviously I have a bit of a nostalgic memory of the rosary, though I was often trash at trying to pray it.
But, in the Orthodox Church, I was told that we have no such thing as the rosary is a Catholic thing. We have our prayer ropes and different prayers to use while using said ropes.
The rosary was supposedly revealed to a Catholic saint in the 13th century (Saint Dominic, for those interested). But knotted prayer ropes have been used to track repeated prayers for centuries either originating with Saint Anthony the Great (father of monasticism) in the 3rd-4th centuries or Saint Pachomius in the 5th century. It is probably likely that the rosary evolved out of these earlier prayer ropes (supposed Marian revelation aside).
But again, there was supposedly no such thing as an Orthodox rosary as the rosary in the West didn't come about until after the Great Schism. I can't say that I was terribly disappointed since I never could bring myself to fully commit myself to any kind of Marian devotion (something that I still struggle with - possibly because of underlying issues with my own mother).
However, since hearing about the various Western Rite Orthodox vicariates I have heard that there are those who converted from Catholicism or Anglicanism who still pray the rosary - and of course, there are those who ask if there is an Orthodox equivalent.
This then exposed me to a bunch of different blog articles and forum posts about The Rule of Theotokos as given by Saint Seraphim of Sarov - a 19th century Russian saint.
So this rule is quite interesting in that information about it is actually pretty sparse.
According to most blog articles, Wikipedia posts, and even encyclopedia articles, this rule was originally given to monks by the Theotokos in the 8th century, and was widely popular. For whatever reason, the rule fell into disuse and was lost until the Theotokos revealed it again to Saint Seraphim in the 19th century.
Supposed Marian revelation aside, you'd think that there would be some kind of historical evidence for such a thing back in the 8th century, since this rule was supposedly widespread and popular. But the only references that I can find for such a thing come from a disciple of a different Saint Seraphim - who was also a disciple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. There are some other sources (in Russian) that make this same claim, but they are all in relation to Saint Seraphim of Sarov.
I could cite a bunch of the sources here, but what would be the point? Instead, I'll link to the Wikipedia page. There is only one source listed in the article, you can access it using the Wayback Machine, but it is in Russian. There is also a PDF version linked at the bottom of the article, which also has to be accessed through the Wayback Machine.
Also, supposedly (I've used that word and its variants quite a bit) the Encyclopedia of Orthodoxy published in Moscow in 2003 had an excerpt that talked about Saint Seraphim and his Rule of the Theotokos and again mentioned the revelation in the 8th century.
Here is this supposed excerpt.
"... it is very good to daily also (they talked about the Jesus Prayer, Daily Prayers etc. prior to this) recite the Rule of the Theotokos (Bogorodychnoye pravilo).
"The Rule of the Theotokos encapsulates the entire life of the Mother of God, being divided into 15 sections that recall the most important points of Her life.
"In accordance with the revelation of the Mother of God, the fulfillment of this Rule of prayer is more important than the reading of akathists etc. and who fulfills this rule lives under the special protection of the Queen of Heaven."
Then the format for the "Bogorodychnoye pravilo" is set forth.
"1) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Nativity of the Theotokos.
2) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Entrance into the Temple of the Theotokos
3) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Kontakion of the Theotokos from the Akathist (re: the sorrow She felt at the death of her parents)
4) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Annunciation.
5) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the prayer "Truly it is meet" in honour of the joyful meeting of the Theotokos with St Elizabeth.
6) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Nativity according to the Flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
7) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Meeting of our Lord in the Temple
8) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Kontakion of the Theotokos from the Akathist re: the flight into Egypt.
9) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the same Kontakion from the Akathist re: the sorrowful finding of the 12 year old Lord Jesus in the Temple.
10) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Crucifixion where the Most Holy Theotokos stood under the Cross of Her Son.
11) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the "Christ is Risen . . . 3 times and the resurrectional hymn sung in place of the "Truly it is meet" in the Paschal time.
12) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Ascension.
13) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of Pentecost.
14) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the Troparion of the Dormition.
15) Our Father . . . 10 x Bogoroditse Divo . . . and the prayer "Truly it is meet" in honour of the glorification of the Most Holy Theotokos by the Most Holy Trinity and also the Troparion of the Holy Protection." (ByzCath.org)
Honestly, for something that was supposedly so widespread you would think that we would have some evidence for it to have existed. Maybe there is evidence somewhere and it is lost to time.
Also, I have searched for versions of the Encyclopedia of Orthodoxy, but I can not find the 2003 version. I believe they have a website now. The website lists this under its entry of the Bogorodychnoye pravilo (Rule of the Theotokos),
"private prayer, widely used in Russia from the beginning XIX century and consisting in daily reading of the Virgin Mary " 150 times, often with the addition of" Our Father "after every ten. B. item in Russia becomes known with the last. third of the XVII century. when it was widely circulated in the lists of Prince. "The Star is bright" , which tells of miracles with those who read the Archangel's delight 150 times a day. According to the postscript to the preface, this is a translation from the “Belarusian book” made by a certain Nikita in Moscow in 1668. The stories are borrowed mainly from app. sources, although there are Russian. origin. More than 100 manuscripts of this book are known. From the preface to the "Star of Light" it follows that B. p. Can replace the Akathist to the Theotokos (it contains about 150 harethisms). This, as well as other signs suggest that the book is based on a certain Catholic. treatise on the rosary - a prayer practice very close to B. p.
B. p. Enjoyed the love of many. famous Russian. ascetics. The Kiev elder Parfeny (Krasnopevtsev) read Theotokos Devo daily 300 times. Pr Seraphim of Sarov ordered the sisters of the Diveevo community to perform B. p. During a daily tour of the groove around Diveevo. In the 2nd floor. XIX century B. p. Practiced Iliodor (Zakharov), hierochem. Glinsky is empty. Hmmm. Seraphim (Zvezdinsky) recommended after every ten to recall certain events from the life of Pres. Virgin Mary and read various prayers for oneself and for the world." (source in Russian)
I don't speak Russian, so I apologize for any weird translation errors - Google only gets you so far.
It seems to me that this Rule was developed of original prayers from monks ages ago that were, at first, the 150 Psalms, then for those who could not read (this is a reason that icons and other things were extremely popular, illiteracy was rampant and not many could read) this was made into 150 Our Fathers with the Angelic Salutation (Hail Mary) being added or substituted as well. These prayers then probably evolved into the rosary as we know it today in the West - and different forms in the East (it's not just the Jesus Prayer that is counted on prayer ropes). In fact, I have a source from the Antiochian Archdiocese that agrees with me (OrthodoxWest).
It also seems to me that the Rule, as it is now, probably entered into Orthodox usage because of the Roman Catholic rosary.
Now then, all of that being said, what does that mean for any Orthodox wanting to pray this Rule? Obviously - at least to me - the current version in use is based on the Catholic Rosary. If an older version exists then I can not find it; perhaps the original version was truly lost as is claimed.
One of the reasons that I've heard for Orthodox to not pray the rosary is for some decidedly non-Orthodox elements, such as when meditating on the mysteries the person is supposed to visualize those mysteries. Apparently Orthodox aren't big in using one's imagination to visualize during prayer - something to do with demonic delusions and pride. I can completely understand this, and when I pray I try not to visualize anything while still meditating on the words.
Not visualizing isn't that hard for me as I did not come from a background that practiced such things during prayer anyway (at least not to my knowledge).
However! From what I can tell of this Rule the imaginations and visualizations are left out while contemplating these mysteries. And, given that the rosary formed from earlier devotions of repetitious prayers as noted above, I don't necessarily think that it would be unOrthodox to pray this Rule of the Theotokos, and obviously the jurisdiction I fall under for everything (including my Oblation) agrees with me in this instance.
So, on the Rule of the Theotokos... Is it Orthodox? Yes, it was given to us by an Orthodox Saint (saints are not infallible, however). It is listed in a Russian Orthodox encyclopedia as used in private devotions. And it is listed in some works of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate for the Western Rite faithful to use.
Is it an ancient rule? Not that I can determine, at least it's current form doesn't seem to be ancient - unless you count the 19th century as being ancient. The best that I can determine is that it evolved, as mentioned above, from regularly reciting 150 Hail Marys, and influenced by the Roman Catholic rosary - which also evolved from earlier devotions.
Was it truly revealed to Saint Seraphim of Sarov by the Theotokos? That is between St. Seraphim, the Theotokos, and God.
Can this rule be prayed by Orthodox faithful? Ask your priest or spiritual confessor before adding anything to your prayer rule, go by what they tell you.
In conclusion to this long post, or TL;DR, if you prefer. Is the Rule of the Theotokos Orthodox? Yes. Is it ancient? Probably not it's current form. Can you pray it? Ask your priest.
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