Even though the
Rosary is a daily devotion which most Catholics pray every day, the month of
October has always been connected in a special way to the Rosary. The origin of
the Rosary has been attributed to a Marian apparition to Saint Dominic in 1208
in the church of Prouille. People wanted a devotional of sorts to pray, since
the priests were able to pray the Office and read the 150 psalms in Latin,
while most of the people could not read. So the devotion was started to pray
150 Hail Marys, later divided into decades and divided into three Mysteries,
while more recently in 2002, the Luminous Mysteries were added. Many people however had abandoned the devotion to the Rosary and it was only
revived after plagues, a schism and other calamities hit most of Europe in the
13th and 14th centuries. The Blessed Mother appeared to Blessed Alan de la
Roche to revive this devotion, also reviving the ancient Confraternity of the
Most Holy Rosary. Blessed Alan was one of the Dominican Fathers from the
monastery at Dinan, in Brittany. He was an eminent theologian and was famous
for his sermons. Our Lady chose him because it was most fitting that a
Dominican from the very same province, should have the honor of re-establishing
this feast. In 1571 Pope St Pius V instituted "Our Lady of
Victory" as an annual feast to commemorate the victory of the Christians
against the Turks in Lepanto. The victory was attributed to Our Lady, as a
rosary procession was offered on that day in St. Peter's Square in Rome for the
success of the mission of the Holy League to hold back Muslim forces from
overrunning Western Europe. In 1565, the Turks had already tried to take over
Malta in the Great Siege, but the Maltese people, with the help of the Knights
of Malta, were able to defend the island from the attack of the Ottoman Empire. In
1573 Pope Gregory XIII changed the title of this feast day to "Feast of
the Holy Rosary". This feast was extended by Pope Clement XII to the whole
of the Latin rite, inserting it into the Roman calendar of saints in 1716, and
assigning it to the first Sunday in October. Pope St Pius X changed the date to
October 7th in 1913. In 1969, Pope Paul VI changed the name of the feast to
"Our Lady of the Rosary".
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