Is the Rosary made of three or four sets of Mysteries?
What about the Luminous Mysteries, proposed by Pope Saint John Paul II?
Here is the answer given by the popes and the Church over the centuries.

Origin of the Rosary

“The Rosary was instituted under divine inspiration by Saint Dominic” [1170-1221]

Pope Leo XIII, Supremi Apostolatus Officio, August 1, 1883.

Subsequently, many popes attested to the origin of the Rosary, which led Benedict XIV (1740-1758) to write:

“…so many pronouncements by the sovereign pontiffs, Leo X, Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Clement VIII, Alexander VII, Innocent XI, Clement XI, Innocent XIII, Benedict XIII, and others, all unanimous in attributing the institution of the Rosary to St. Dominic…”

The unanimous teaching of the popes

URBAN IV

In 1236, he wrote :

“It is a pious rite that, against the dangers facing the world, the Hail Mary be recited as many times as there are psalms of David [150, editor’s note], with each decade preceded by the Lord’s Prayer. With our apostolic authority, we approve this psalter of the Virgin.”

SAINT PIE V

In 1569, he definitively established the form of the Rosary in the bull Consueverunt romani Pontifices, in which he stated very clearly that St. Dominic had brought it to the Church

“… a form of prayer, called the Rosary or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which consists in honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary by reciting 150 Hail Marys, in accordance with the number of David’s psalms (…)”

LEO XIII

In Lætitiæ sanctæ (August 8, 1893), he recalls that the

“three principal causes of disorder among peoples find their remedies in the three series of mysteries.”

PAUL VI

During the Second Vatican Council, reformers wanted to change the Rosary. Faced with proposals made in April 1973, Pope Paul VI refused emphatically:

“The Rosary must remain unique in its form and unchanged from what it is today.”

The following year, in the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus (February 2, 1974), he confirmed the structure of the Rosary:

• No. 45: (…) The division of the mysteries of the Rosary into three parts not only closely corresponds to the chronological order of events, but above all reflects the pattern of the early preaching of the faith and presents the mystery of Christ in exactly the same way as St. Paul saw it in the famous “hymn” of the Epistle to the Philippians: humiliation, death, exaltation (2:6-11).
• No. 49: The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, according to the tradition that our predecessor St. Pius V gathered and then officially proposed, consists of several elements arranged in an organic way:
  contemplation, in union with Mary, of a series of mysteries of salvation, wisely divided into three cycles, which express the joy of the messianic times, the saving pain of Christ, and the glory of the Risen One that spreads over the Church (…).
  Their number [the Hail Marys], in the typical and complete form of 150, presents a certain analogy with the Psalter and goes back to the very origins of this pious exercise. (…)

The Apostolic Letter of John Paul II

In 2002, John Paul II signed an apostolic letter entitled Rosarium Virginis Mariae in which he proposed five additional themes of mysteries, which he called luminous, drawn from the public life of Our Lord. There has been much confusion about this letter from the Pope, and it is useful to recall several important points:

• John Paul II did not create any obligation, because an apostolic letter is subject to the free appreciation of the faithful, as he pointed out in his letter, in No. 19: “While leaving it to the free appreciation of individuals and communities, this could also allow for the mysteries of Christ’s public life between his baptism and his Passion to be taken into account.“
• John Paul II was reviving an ancient practice. The Church has never fixed the themes of the mysteries, and since the 15th century, the Carthusians have meditated on other themes of the joyful mysteries. This was also the case with preachers such as Father Calmel (OP) (1914-1975), who proposed meditating on the miracle at Cana or other passages from the public life of Jesus for the fifth joyful mystery. The pope was therefore not introducing any new practice, but merely proposing five themes from the life of Jesus in a non-binding manner.
  The only peculiarity is that he gave them the name “Luminous Mysteries,” which has been misinterpreted.
• Finally, John Paul II never wrote that the structure of the Rosary had been changed. Not a single sentence in his letter indicates that the Rosary now consists of 200 “Hail Marys” in four decades.
  Thus, he did not change the structure of the Rosary in the official directory published by the Holy See, L’Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, in which the structure of 15 decades is still preserved: “The Rosary is a form of prayer in which the recitation of 15 decades of ‘Hail Marys,’ interspersed with the ‘Our Father,’ is joined by the pious meditation on as many mysteries of our redemption.” This is logical, since it is difficult to imagine John Paul II overruling Paul VI, overruling dozens of popes since Urban IV, and overruling Our Lady of Fatima, who saved him.
  The faithful are therefore free to use or not use the themes of the Luminous Mysteries, to integrate them or not into the Joyful Mysteries, or to recite a rosary during the week with these Mystery themes, or even to choose other passages from the public life of Our Lord.

Fatima: Our Lady recalled the structure of the Rosary

On October 13, 1917, after saying that her name was Our Lady of the Rosary, the Blessed Virgin showed the little visionaries three pictures representing the three series of mysteries of the Rosary:

• The Holy Family, illustrating the Joyful Mysteries;
• Our Lady of Sorrows, with Our Lord beside her, illustrating the Sorrowful Mysteries;
• Our Lady of Mount Carmel holding a scapular in her hand, illustrating the Glorious Mysteries.

Then, on December 10, 1925, the Blessed Virgin confirmed the structure of the Rosary. During her apparition to Sister Lucia of Fatima for the “first Saturdays of the month,” she asked that fifteen minutes be spent meditating “on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary in a spirit of reparation.”

Conclusions

1. Established by Saint Dominic in the 13th century, the Rosary has been structured since its inception into 150 “Hail Marys” divided into three sets of mysteries. More than ten popes, including Paul VI, have confirmed and maintained this structure of the Rosary linked to the 150 psalms and the three cycles of Christ’s life. This structure was confirmed by Our Lady of Fatima.
2. John Paul II, following the Carthusians and various preachers, wanted to enrich the diversity of themes for meditation with the public life of Our Lord, but without changing the structure of the Rosary itself. Moreover, far from making these themes obligatory, he left them “to the free appreciation of the faithful and communities.” The Pope’s intention is therefore that, in this area, everyone’s freedom be respected.
3. In summary, the structure of the Rosary has not changed since its origin, and it is completely false to say that the Rosary now necessarily consists of 200 “Hail Marys” in four series of mysteries. On the other hand, it is true to say that the faithful are free to keep the Rosary with the usual mysteries or to introduce other themes of mysteries inspired by the public life of Our Lord, in particular the passages chosen by John Paul II.

Text written by Salve Corda, of which the Perpetual Rosary for the World is a member.