History of the Rosary of Blessed Alanus, some 300 years later. During the middle ages, evidence suggests that both the Our Father and the Hail Mary were recited with prayer beads. In 13th century Paris, four trade guilds existed of prayer bead makers, who were referred to as "paternosterers", and the beads were referred to as "paternosters", suggesting a continued link between the Our Father ("Pater noster" in Latin) and the prayer beads. In the 12th century, the rule of the English anchorites, the "Ancrene Wisse", specified how groups of 50 Hail Marys were to be broken into five decades of ten Hail Marys
Hail Mary to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, , "chaíre", here translated "Hail", literally has the meaning "rejoice" or "be glad". This was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Luke's Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both "Hail" and "Rejoice" are valid English translations of the word ("Hail" reflecting the Latin translation, and "Rejoice" reflecting the original Greek). The word , ("kecharitōménē"), here translated as "full of grace", admits of various translations. Grammatically, the word is the feminine perfect passive participle of the