To the Carmelites, she is Our Lady of Mount Carmel, cradling her Son in one arm and offering the Brown Scapular with the other. To the Franciscans, she is Our Lady of the Angels, whose serene face looks out from the twelfth-century mural in the Portiuncula. In Dominican religious art, Mary is depicted either as handling the Rosary to Saint Dominic or as Mary, Queen of Preachers, spreading her motherly mantle wide over all the saints of the Order of Preaching Friars. While it is impossible to say that any religious order loves Mary the most, each of the great religious orders honors Our Lady in a way fitting with its charism. We Dominicans are especially known for popularizing that quintessential Marian prayer, the Rosary. What is not so well known is the wealth of “household devotions” to Mary that permeate life in a Dominican convent.

Individual and community devotion to Mary is evident in the sisters’ very names: of 207 sisters from the oldest professed through the novices, eighty-five names begin with “Mary,” and seven names end in “Mary.” Another seventeen names end in “Marie,” while twelve begin with “Marie” (such as Sister Marie Vianney). Sister Maria Goretti and thirteen other Sisters feature “Maria” as part of their names, while Sister Annunciata’s and  Sister Immaculata’s names are taken from the Blessed Mother’s life and titles. Sister Marian’s and Sister Miriam’s names are variants of “Mary.” Other variations of names honoring Our Lady include Sister Perpetua (Our Lady of Perpetual Help), Sister Regina (Queen of Heaven), Sister Loretta (Our Lady of Loretto), Sister Rosaria (Our Lady of the Rosary), and Sister Maris Stella (Our Lady, Star of the Sea).  The grand total in the community is 144 out of 207, or 70%.

Our habit, too, like that of the Carmelites, incorporates a full-length scapular which symbolizes humility and service and is thus associated with Mary. The white Dominican scapular was added to the canons’ traditional white tunic and cape after Our Lady appeared to a mortally ill Blessed Reginald of Orleans and healed him by anointing. She asked that the scapular be worn by members of the Order from that time onward.

The very hours of a Nashville Dominican’s day recall the Blessed Mother of God. The first community prayer each day is the Angelus: “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.” Our community customs weave Marian devotions into the Liturgy of the Hours, the morning and evening prayers of the Church. We pray a community Rosary together every evening after Vespers and our night prayers begin with a series of prayers to “Our Lady of this house….Most beautiful flower of Mount Carmel….Star of the Sea.”

A number of traditional Dominican convent customs are rooted in the Order’s devotion to Mary. Since the earliest days of the Order, it has been the custom to bless the cells in the dormitory with holy water shortly before the friars or the sisters retire. This custom comes from a tradition that Our Lady, accompanied by Saint Cecilia and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, was seen blessing the friars’ dormitory cells with holy water. A few years later, Our Lady appeared to Blessed Jordan of Saxony to tell him that every night when the friars sang the Salve Regina at Compline, she prostrated herself before her Son at the words, “Eia, ergo advocata nostra” (meaning, “Therefore, O [Mary] our advocate”) and interceded for the Dominican Order.

The Rosary was born from medieval popular devotion to Mary, especially the repeating of the “Angelic salutation” from Luke 1:28 (“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!”) so as to bring back to Mary the joy she received in the angel’s first greeting. Other medieval practices allowed for meditation on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Dominicans in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially Alan de la Roche, are credited with the popularizing of the Rosary, to the extent that the New Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the Rosary also calls it the “Dominican Rosary.”

May devotions are part of the annual customs of all our schools. Saint Cecilia Motherhouse has its May Crowning on May 8, the feast of Mary as Patroness of the Dominican Order.

Regardless of the nature of one’s Marian devotion in the world, once a woman enters Dominican religious life, the Blessed Mother of God becomes a friend, mother, and patroness in an entirely new way. Dominicans have a tender love for the Blessed Mother, a pure and chivalrous and childlike love characteristic of the High Middle Ages that gave birth to our Order of Preachers.

It may justly be said that the Rosary of Mary is, as it were, the foundation on which the very Order of Saint Dominic rests for making perfect the life of its members and obtaining the salvation of others.

Pope Pius XI, In Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1934 

The image of Our Lady handing the Rosary to her white-robed son is a familiar one that reflects a devotion that is continued by the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia. The beginning of October brings a time-honored tradition we call Rosary Sunday. On the first Sunday in October in the chapel of our Motherhouse, the Sisters recite the mysteries of the Rosary continually throughout the day. Beginning immediately after Mass, the Sisters take their places for half an hour each before the altar of our Blessed Mother. There, until Vespers, each Sister offers her prayers for the needs of the Church and for the conversion of the world. 

Tradition has long connected Saint Dominic and his Order with the preaching of the Rosary. Dominic’s followers have been called the “Friars of Mary.” The fifteen-decade Rosary adorns our habit with the frequent reminder that we are united to the Son of God in the living presence of our Blessed Mother.