October, Month of the Rosary

The month of October each year is dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary. This is mostly due to the fact that the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7. It was introduced to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in gratitude for the protection that she gives the Church in answer to the praying of the Rosary by the faithful. The feast was introduced by Pope St. Pius V in the year 1571 to commemorate the miraculous victory of the Christian forces in the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The pope assigned more to the arms of the Rosary than the power of cannons and the courage of the soldiers who fought there. Legend tells us that the Rosary was given to St. Dominic (1170-1221) by Mary, the Mother of Jesus ,who entrusted it to him as an aid in the conflicts with the Albigensians. The Dominican pope, St. Pius V, did much to further the spread of the Rosary and it thereafter became one of the most popular devotions in Christendom. It was the same Pope St. Pius V, who in 1569 officially approved the Rosary in its present form with the Papal Bull, Consueverunt Romani Pontifices. It had been completed by the addition of the second half of the "Hail Mary" and the "Glory be to the Father" at the conclusion of each mystery.