Alanus de Rupe
{{Short description|Catholic Priest, Theologian, and Mystic}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific-prefix = Blessed
|name= Alan de la Roche
|honorific-suffix= OP
|image=Adoration of Blessed Alan of the Rock.jpg
|caption=Print depicting the mystical marriage of Alan to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
|titles= Apostle of the Rosary
|birth_date = 1428
|birth_place = Dinan, Brittany
|death_date = 8 September {{death year and age|1475|1428}}
|death_place = Zwolle, Netherlands
|feast_day= 8 September (Traditional Dominican calendar){{Cite journal |date=1902 |title=Alan de Rupe and his Indulgence of 60,000 Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUcaAQAAIAAJ |journal=The Month |volume=100 |pages=284}}
|venerated_in=Catholic Church
|attributes=The Rosary, Banner of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary
}}
File:Alanus de Rupe (cropped).jpg
Alan de la Roche {{post-nominals|post-noms=OP}} (Ecclesiastical Latin: Alanus de Rupe; French: Alain {{circa|1428}} – 8 September 1475){{Cite journal |date=1902 |title=Alan de Rupe and his Indulgence of 60,000 Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUcaAQAAIAAJ |journal=The Month |volume=100 |pages=284}} was a Breton-born priest and Dominican friar and priest, mystic and theologian. Some writers claim him as a native of Germany, others of Belgium; but his disciple, Cornelius Sneek, says that he was born in Brittany. He died at Zwolle.{{Cite book |last=Gambero |first=Luigi |title=Mary in the Middle Ages: The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Thought of Medieval Latin Theologians |date=November 2, 2010 |publisher=Ignatius Press |isbn=9781681493282 |pages=316 |language=en}} He is especially notable for his contributions to the Catholic devotion of the Rosary: According to tradition, the devotion to the Holy Rosary had been neglected and forgotten in most of Europe in the centuries after Saint Dominic established it,{{Cite book |last=A sister of the Congregation of St. Catharine of Siena (Stone) |url=https://archive.org/details/ShortLivesOfTheDominicanSaints |title=Short Lives of the Dominican Saints |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. |year=1901 |editor-last=The Very Rev. Father Procter, S.T.L |location=London |pages=268-269 |language=en}} and Alan is credited with re-establishing the devotion.{{Cite book |last=de Montfort |first=Louis |title=Le Secret de Rosaire. |year=1710 |location=La Rochelle, France |language=fr |trans-title=The Secret of the Rosary}}
Life
Born in Dinan, Brittany in around 1428, he entered the Dominican Order in 1459 at age thirty-one. While pursuing his studies at Saint Jacques, Paris, he distinguished himself in philosophy and theology. From 1459 to 1475 he taught almost uninterruptedly at Paris, Lille, Douay, Ghent, and Rostock in Germany, where, in 1473, he was made Master of Sacred Theology. During his sixteen years of teaching he became a most renowned preacher. He was indefatigable in what he regarded as his special mission, the preaching and re-establishment of the Rosary, which he did with success throughout northern France, Flanders, and the Netherlands.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01246a.htm McNicholas, John. "Alanus de Rupe." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 2 Aug. 2014] He established a Confraternity of the Psalter of the Glorious Virgin Mary, around 1470 which was instrumental in disseminating the rosary throughout Europe.{{Cite book |last=Ashley |first=Benedict |title=The Dominicans |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=9781606089330 |pages=104–105 |language=en}}[https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-blessed-alanus-de-rupe/ Rabenstein, Katherine I. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info. 26 July 2020]
Alanus published nothing during his lifetime, but immediately after his death the brethren of his province were commanded to collect his writings for publication. These were edited at different times and have occasioned some controversy among scholars. A list of writings attributed to Alanus was compiled by J. G. T. Graesse in Trésor des livres rares et précieux (1859).[https://archive.org/details/trsordelivresr06gr Graesse, J.G.T., Trésor des livres rares et précieux, Volume 6, pt. 1, pg 193, 1859].
Alanus on Dominic and the Rosary
According to an old Dominican tradition, in the early 13th century, Dominic de Guzmán was distressed at his lack of success in his preaching against the Albigensians and prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. She reportedly appeared to him and told him to use her psalter in conjunction with his preaching. This psalter, a custom of praying 150 Hail Marys rather than Psalms, developed into the Rosary.
This traditional origin for the Rosary was generally accepted, including by many popes and figures such as Louis De Montfort,{{Cite web |date=2015-10-07 |title=15 Super Promises of Our Blessed Mother for Faithfully Praying the Rosary |url=https://www.ncregister.com/blog/15-super-promises-of-our-blessed-mother-for-faithfully-praying-the-rosary |access-date=2025-06-18 |website=NCR |language=en |quote=In The Secret of the Rosary, Part I, St. Louis De Montfort gives some details how St. Dominic presented the Rosary to the Church in 1214 in the method we use today [...]}} until the 17th century, when Bollandists concluded that the account originated with Alanus, writing over two hundred years after Dominic's life. Alanus attributed his descriptions of Dominic to a 1460 vision; later authors have suggested that he may have invented them to enliven sermons. John T. McNicholas, a Catholic bishop, held that Alanus's accounts should not be regarded as historical. Herbert Thurston, while describing Alanus as pious and earnest, argued that he was full of delusions and that his revelations were based on the imaginary testimony of nonexistent writers.[https://books.google.com/books?id=EUcaAQAAIAAJ&dq=Alanus+de+Rupe&pg=PA283 Thurston, Herbert. "Alan de Rupe and his Indulgence", The Month, Vol. 100, p.284, Longmans, Green and Co., London 1902][http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13184b.htm Thurston, Herbert, and Andrew Shipman. "The Rosary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 30 April 2014] Although historical evidence for Dominic's role in the origin of the Rosary is lacking and has been questioned by scholars such as the Bollandists, several popes after the 17th century, including Pope Leo XIII{{Cite web |title=Supremi Apostolatus Officio (September 1, 1883) {{!}} LEO XIII |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_01091883_supremi-apostolatus-officio.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.vatican.va}}{{Cite web |title=Octobri Mense (September 22, 1891) {{!}} LEO XIII |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_22091891_octobri-mense.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.vatican.va}}{{Cite web |title=Magnae Dei Matris (September 8, 1892) {{!}} LEO XIII |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_08091892_magnae-dei-matris.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.vatican.va}} and Pope Pius XI,{{Cite web |title=Ingravescentibus Malis (September 29, 1937) {{!}} PIUS XI |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_29091937_ingravescentibus-malis.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.vatican.va}} continued to attribute its origin to Dominic in official documents such as encyclicals.{{Cite web |title=The Rosary & St. Dominic |url=https://rosarycenter.org/the-rosary-and-st.-dominic |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=Rosary Center & Confraternity |language=en |quote=Leo X (1521), Pius V (1572), Gregory XIII (1585), Sixtus V (1590), Clement VIII (1605), Alexander VII (1667), Bl. Innocent XI (1689), Clement XI (1721), Innocent XIII (1724)}}
Fifteen Rosary promises
{{See also|Fifteen Rosary promises}}
According to Alanus, Mary made fifteen specific promises through Dominic de Guzmán to those who faithfully pray the Rosary. The fifteen Rosary promises range from protection from misfortune to meriting a high degree of glory in heaven.[http://www.rosary-center.org/nconobl.htm Rosary Center, Dominican Fathers]{{Cite web |title=The 15 Promises of the Rosary - Dominican Friars |url=https://dominicanfriars.org/the-15-promises-of-the-rosary/ |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=dominicanfriars.org |language=en}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
- {{catholic|wstitle=Alanus de Rupe}}
Further reading
- Winston-Allen, Anne. Stories of the Rose
- Huizinga, Johan, The Waning of the Middle Ages, Chapter, "Religious Sensibility and Imagination"
External links
- De dignitate et utilitate psalterii praecelsae ac intemeratae semper virginis Mariae http://www.ub.uni-kiel.de/digiport/bis1800/typboliste.html
- [http://tudigit.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/show/inc-ii-282 Quodlibet de veritate fraternitatis rosarii seu psalterii beatae Mariae Virginis].
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rupe, Alanus De}}
Category:French beatified people
Category:15th-century venerated Christians