Saint of the day October 7: Our Lady of the Rosary. Catholic Saints

Every October 7, the Virgin of the Rosary is celebrated, an invocation that reminds us of the importance of affectionately addressing our Mother in prayer, particularly through the recitation of the Holy Rosary. It was the Virgin Mary herself who asked us to pray it and make it known, so that we can obtain abundant graces.

Jesus, core of the Holy Rosary

The Rosary is unquestionably a Marian prayer – accurate help to grow in love for the Woman through whom salvation came. However, we do not always realize that it is, above all, a “Christ-centered” prayer; that is, a prayer centered on Christ.

The enunciation of the mysteries and the Hail Marys that follow one another help us to contemplate and meditate on the life of Our Savior, Jesus Christ; and to do it in the company of Mary, his Mother, always close to her Son. She, then, teaches us to contemplate the mysteries of Jesus through her maternal gaze, because everything in Mary is an invitation to love her Son.

We can say, consequently, that the Rosary is the “school of prayer” of the Virgin. In other words, at Mary’s side we learn to listen to the voice of Jesus with all reverence.

a little history

In the year 1208 the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Domingo de Guzmán, founder of the Dominicans, and gave him a Rosary, most likely in the form in which we know it today. Then, the Mother of God taught the Spanish saint how to pray it. The Rosary was the Virgin’s “answer” to the prayers of Saint Dominic, who asked her for help so that the Albigensian heresy (another version of Catharism or religion of the pure) was defeated.

Before retiring, Our Mother entrusted Saint Dominic to spread the prayer. This is what the saint did, and the Rosary, in subsequent centuries, penetrated deeper and deeper into the souls of Catholics and spread as a universal practice.

Simultaneously, devotion to Our Lady, the Virgin of the Rosary, was born and grew.

Lepanto

One of the determining episodes that contribute to the historical roots of this Marian dedication and to the dissemination of the Holy Rosary in the history of the Church was what occurred in the “Battle of Lepanto”, which occurred on October 7, 1571 in the Gulf of Patras. , opposite Nafpacto, a Greek city then known as Lepanto. In this battle, a coalition of Christian troops and naval forces had to confront the navy of the Ottoman Empire, of Islamic roots, with the purpose of stopping its expansionist ambitions in the West (Europe) and recovering sovereignty over the Mediterranean (Habsburg-Ottoman wars). or Austro-Turkish, also known as the Turkish Wars, in which the kingdom of Venice also intervenes).

Before the battle, the Christian militias entrusted themselves to the Virgin Mary and prayed the Rosary together. That day the Christians obtained a resounding victory that was attributed to the intercession of the Mother of God, protector of Christianity, hence the extraordinary symbolism of Lepanto.

The celebration

Aware of the triumph, Pope Saint Pius V (p. 1566-1572), who had been a Dominican, in gratitude to the Virgin Mary, instituted the feast of the “Virgin of Victories” to be celebrated on the first Sunday of October. Furthermore, he incorporated the title “Help of Christians” in the litanies dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as a tribute to the Lady who gave courage to the defenders of Christianity.

Years later, Pope Gregory XIII (p. 1572-1585) changed the name of the festival to “Our Lady of the Rosary”; and Pope Clement XI (p. 1700-1721) extended the celebration to the entire Western Church. At the beginning of the 20th century, Saint Pius and this will overcome the world.”

The Virgin of the Rosary and the successors of Peter

“Rosary” means “crown of roses” and, as Saint Pius V himself defined it, “it is a most pious way of prayer, available to everyone, which consists of repeating the greeting that the angel gave to Mary; interposing an Our Father between every ten Hail Marys and trying to meditate meanwhile on the life of Our Lord”.

At the dawn of the 21st century, Saint John Paul II (p. 1978-2005) – who added the “luminous mysteries” to the prayer of the Holy Rosary – noted in his apostolic letter “Rosary of the Virgin Mary” (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary) that this Marian prayer “in its simplicity and depth, continues to be also in this barely begun third millennium a prayer of great significance, destined to produce fruits of holiness.” The Rosary is the propitious prayer for these “tough times” for the world and the Church.

The Pilgrim Pope concluded that document with this beautiful prayer composed by Blessed Bartolomé Longo, the “Apostle of the Rosary”:

Oh blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain that unites us with God,
bond of love that unites us to the Angels,
tower of salvation against the assaults of hell,
Safe harbor in the common shipwreck, we will never leave you.
You will be our comfort in the hour of agony.
For you the last kiss of life that goes out.
And the last whisper of our lips will be your soft name,
oh Queen of the Rosary of Pompeii,
oh our dear Mother,
oh Refuge of sinners,
oh Sovereign consoler of the sad.
May you be blessed everywhere, today and always, on earth and in heaven. Amen.

The Virgin of the Rosary and Latin America

Currently, the most famous sanctuary in the world dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary is that of Pompeii (Italy), founded precisely by Blessed Bartolo Longo in the mid-19th century.

The Virgin of the Rosary is the Patroness of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), of the Republic of Colombia (Nta. Señora del Rosario de Chiquinquirá) and of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) of Spain. It is widely venerated in Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and other Latin American countries such as Peru, where the first image of the Virgin of the Rosary arrived on American lands, donated by King Charles V of Spain. in 1643.

More information: