Its origin is as follows: about the year 1420, a young man, deeply devoted to Our Lady, took the habit of Saint Francis. Before joining the Order he had, among other practices, been accustomed daily to make a chaplet of flowers, and with it to crown a statue of the Blessed Virgin.

Having, in his novitiate, no longer an opportunity of making this crown for his Most Beloved Queen, he, in his simplicity, thought that she would withdraw her affection from him; this temptation of the devil disturbed his vocation, and he resolved to abandon the cloister. The merciful Mother appeared to him, and gently rebuking him strengthened him in his vocation by telling him to offer her, instead of the chaplet of flowers, a crown much more pleasing to her, composed of seventy-two Ave Marias with a Pater after each decade of Ave Marias, and to meditate at each decade upon the Seven Joys she had experienced during the seventy-two years of her exile upon the earth.

The novice immediately commenced reciting the new crown or rosary, and derived therefrom many spiritual and temporal graces. This pious practice quickly spread through the whole Order, and even throughout the world; the Roman Pontiffs granted divers indulgences to those who recited this crown, in addition to the plenary indulgence which was for the Franciscans only. This devotion became very popular under different names: some called it the Crown of the Madonna, as if to mark its excellence; others, the Crown of the Franciscans, on account of its origin; and others lastly, the Crown of the Seven Joys, because of the mysteries meditated upon during its recitation.