— October 7 —

Every October 7th, the Virgin of the Rosary is celebrated, a devotion that reminds us of the importance of affectionately turning to our Mother in prayer, particularly through the recitation of the Holy Rosary. It was the Mother of God 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 - a sure help to grow in love for the Woman through whom salvation came. However, we do not always notice that it is, above all, a “Christocentric” prayer; that is, a prayer centered on Christ.

The recitation 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 so in the company of Mary, always close to her Son. She 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 therefore say that the Rosary is the Virgin's "school of prayer." At Mary's side we learn to listen to the voice of Jesus with all reverence.

A bit of history

In 1208, the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominicans, and gave him a Rosary, most likely in the form in which we know it today. The Mother of God then taught the Spanish saint how to pray it.

Before retiring, Our Mother entrusted Saint Dominic with spreading the prayer. The saint did so, and the Rosary, in the following centuries, penetrated ever deeper into the souls of Catholics.

This is how devotion to the 'Virgin of the Rosary' was also born.

Lepanto

One of the determining episodes in the spread of the Holy Rosary over the centuries was what happened in the midst of a war of extraordinary symbolism: the "Battle of Lepanto", which took place on October 7, 1571. In this battle, a coalition of Christian troops and naval forces had to face 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.

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.

The celebration

Informed of the victory, Pope Saint Pius V, in gratitude to the Virgin Mary, instituted the feast of the “Virgin of Victories” to be celebrated on the first Sunday in October. In addition, he incorporated the title of “Help of Christians” in the litanies dedicated to the Virgin, as a tribute to the Lady who armed the defenders of Christianity with courage.

Years later, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast to “Our Lady of the Rosary”; and Pope Clement XI extended the celebration to the entire Western Church. At the beginning of the 20th century, Saint Pius X definitively established October 7 as the official day for this feast and immortalized these words: “Give me an army that prays the Rosary and it will conquer the world.”

Our Lady of the Rosary and the successors of Peter

“Rosary” means “crown of roses” and, as defined by Saint Pius V himself, “it is a very pious way of praying, accessible to everyone, which consists of repeating the greeting that the angel gave to Mary; inserting an Our Father between every ten Hail Marys and trying to meditate in the meantime on the life of Our Lord.”

At the dawn of the 21st century, Saint John Paul II, who added the “luminous mysteries” to the recitation of the Holy Rosary, pointed out in his apostolic letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” that this Marian prayer “in its simplicity and depth, remains, even in this third millennium which has barely begun, a prayer of great significance, destined to produce fruits of holiness.” The Rosary is the appropriate prayer for these difficult times for the world and the Church.

Pope Peregrino concludes his document with this beautiful prayer composed by Blessed Bartholomew 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 is fading away.

And the last whisper from our lips will be your sweet 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.