7 October: Our Lady of the Rosary

A crown of roses, as a compendium of the Gospel
The Feast of the Rosary was instituted by Saint Pius V with the name, “Our Lady of Victory, to commemorate the battle of Lepanto, which took place on 7 October 1571, when a fleet of the Holy League defeated a fleet of the Ottoman Empire. Christians attributed the victory to the protection of Mary, whom they had invoked by reciting the Rosary before going into battle.
According to tradition, as the battle was being fought in Rome, the Dominican Saint Pius V had a vision of victory, and knelt down to thank Our Lady. In 1572, Pius V established the number and list of the mysteries, and recommended reciting the Rosary. In this way, he contributed to its spread, so much so, that it became the most cherished prayers among emperors, princes, bishops, religious and common people.
The successor of Saint Pius V, Gregory XIII changed the name of the Feast to “Our Lady of the Rosary”. The celebration was extended to the Universal Church in 1716, and in 1913, Saint Pius X set 7 October as the date for the Feast.
The word Rosary means “crown of roses” and recalls the medieval custom of decorating the statues of Our Lady with floral wreaths. Hence, the Italian expression of reciting the crowns to offer a spiritual collection of prayers to Mary.
The origins of this devotion are very old. The oriental anchorites used small stones to count the number of prayers they voiced. In the Middle Ages, lay brothers in monasteries, who were not obliged to recite the Psalter because they did not speak Latin, recited a series of Paternosters (Our Father). Saint Bede the Venerable recommended that they count them by using grains inserted into a thread to form a kind of necklace.
The recital of a specific number of “Hail Marys” dates back to the Carthusian Order, when the Prior of the Monastery of Trier, Adolf of Essen, told a novice named Dominic of Prussia to recite 50 “Hail Marys” every day, meditating on the life of Jesus. The young man wrote 50 brief meditations or “clauses”, in Latin and German. The Prior liked the idea and circulated it among the various Carthusian monasteries. Dominic prepared three series of 50 “clauses” to recall the 150 Psalms.
Blessed Alain de la Roche of the Order of the Preachers is credited with spreading the Rosary among the people. In 1463, with the approval of Bishop Guglielmo Filastre, he wrote the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, which soon after, became known as the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin. Preaching in Flanders and then Lille, he came into contact with some Carthusian monasteries and Dominic of Prussia’s “clauses”, which he fell in love with. Alain thus became the great apostle of the Rosary, introducing some changes to the Carthusian Dominic of Prussia’s Rosary. Among them, were dividing the 150 “Hail Marys” into 15 decades that started with the Paternoster and recalled Christ’s Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection. He preferred the word Psalter to Rosary and did not feel mediation was necessary, although he recommended it, and he replaced the “clauses” with the mysteries.
The first Confraternity of the Rosary in Italy was established by Saint Domenico di Castello in 1480, while the first official institution was the convent of Saint Mark in Florence in May 1481.
Blessed Alain attributed the origin of the Rosary to Saint Dominic, but there is no evidence to support this.
When we speak of the Rosary, we refer to the third part, thus, to the 50 “Hail Marys”.
The popularity of the Rosary spread quickly, to the extent that it became common practice to carry a crown in the pocket and recite it in the evening with the family. There have been many saints who were devoted to the Rosary, among them, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint John Marie Vianney, Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Saint John Bosco, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Saint Pio da Pietrelcina, Saint John XXIII Saint John Paul II.
The Pontiffs have dedicated various documents to the Magisterium of the Rosary. On 1 September 1883, Leo XIII promulgated the Encyclical, Supremi Apostolatus Officio, on the prayer of the Rosary, describing the prayer as an effective spiritual instrument against the evils of society. He wrote several other encyclical letters on the Rosary, and is known as the Pope of the Rosary. Pontiffs of the 20th century also referred to the Rosary, including Pius XII, Saint John XXIII and Saint Paul VI. Inspired by the Second Ecumenical Council, in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Saint Paul VI highlighted the evangelic nature of the Rosary and its Christological orientation. Saint John Paul II proclaimed a Year of the Rosary (October 2002 to October 2003), and wrote the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae.
During a pastoral visit to the Pontifical Shrine of Pompeii on Sunday, 19 October 2008, Benedict XVI stated: “To be apostles of the Rosary, however, it is necessary to experience personally the beauty and depth of this prayer which is simple and accessible to everyone. It is first of all necessary to let the Blessed Virgin take one by the hand to contemplate the Face of Christ: a joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious Face”.
In his greetings to the Arabic-speaking faithful at the General Audience of 19 May 2021, Pope Francis underlined that “during the month of May, the month dedicated to Our Lady, we recite the Rosary, the compendium of the entire history of our salvation. The Holy Rosary is a powerful weapon against evil and an effective means to obtain true peace in our hearts”.
Our Lady of the Rosary is widely celebrated by the faithful throughout the world and is one of the most traditional of the Feasts. In iconography, Mary is depicted with a white dress or a blue mantle and the crown of the Rosary in her hands, recalling the image of Our Lady of the Belt.