Feast
of the Holy Rosary
Taken from 1913 The Catholic Encyclopedia
Apart from the signal defeat of the Albigensian heretics
at the battle of Muret in 1213 which legend has attributed to the
recitation of the Rosary by St. Dominic, it is believed that
Heaven has on many occasions rewarded the faith of those who had
recourse to this devotion in times of special danger.
More particularly, the naval victory of Lepanto gained
by Don John of
Austria
over the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October in 1571
responded wonderfully to the processions made at
Rome
on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St.
Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should
be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order
Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches
which possessed an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary.
In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by
Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI
after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene
on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of our Lady of the Snows), at
Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be
celebrated by the universal Church.
A set of "proper" lessons in the second
nocturn were conceded by Benedict XIII. Leo XIII has since raised
the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and has
added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation "Queen
of the Most Holy Rosary". On this feast, in every church
in which the Roman confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary
indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain
conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of
Our Lady. This has been called the "Portiuncula" of the
Rosary.
Written by Herbert
Thurston
The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume XIII
© 1912 by Robert Appleton Company
Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D.,
Censor
Imprimatur, John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
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