Alan de la Rocha

Alan de la Rocha was a fifteenth-century Dominican friar who is best known for his account of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to St. Dominic in 1206. According to his account, Mary appeared to St. Dominic after he had been praying and doing severe penances, and gave him a rosary as a gift. De la Rocha's account is considered one of the earliest written records of the rosary and its origins. He was a prominent figure in the Dominican Order and played an important role in the development of the rosary as a devotional practice.