to start a conversation between the person and Christ. Padre Pio, a rosary devotee, said: "Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds him." From the sixteenth century onwards, Rosary recitations often involved "picture texts" that further assisted meditation. Such imagery continues to be used to depict the Mysteries of the rosary.

References to the Rosary have been part of various reported Marian Apparitions spanning two centuries. The