Our Lady of the Rosary

I was asked yesterday about the rosary and I'd just like to share that we carry this neat little biography holy cards that are filled with information on the Saints and the different titles of Mary and Jesus.

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was first established by Pope Pius V in 1573 in thanksgiving to God for the Christian armada’s defeat of the Turkish fleet at Lepanto.  Pope Clement XI extended the feast to the entire Church in 1716 after the Christian defeat of the Turks in Hungary. 

            The rosary is said to have developed through the early Christian practice of reciting the 150 Psalms prayed by the Church.  Those unable to read replaced the Psalms with 150 Our Fathers, using what was referred to as paternoster beads for counting, and eventually with 150 Hail Marys, also called Our Lady’s Psalter.  

            In 1208, Domingo de Guzman, a Spanish preacher, went to France to defend the faith against the Albigensian heresy.  As Dominic prayed in the chapel in Prouille, Our Lady appeared to him and taught him the complete rosary, attaching 15 promises for those who prayed the rosary faithfully.  These promises include special protection and graces, a decrease in sin, an abundance of mercy for souls and reception of the sacraments before dying.  St. Dominic founded the Dominican Friars, opened monasteries and spread devotion to the rosary all over the world.   

            In 1917, Our Lady appeared in Fatima, Portugal to three children, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia as they were tending sheep.  During the sixth apparition on October 13, Our Lady told the children that she wanted a chapel built there in her honor and she wanted people to pray the rosary daily.  She told the children, “I am the Lady of the Rosary”.