Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

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On October 7th, the Catholic Church celebrates a memorial in honor of Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary. October has also been traditionally known as the month of the Rosary. The recitation of the Rosary is a devotion based on Sacred Scripture. The feast of "Our Lady of the Rosary" is attributed to a vision of the Blessed Mother to St. Dominic.

Originally derived from the feast of St Mary of Victory instituted by the Dominican Pope Pius V after the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Lepanto on October 7th 1571. Pope Gregory XIII made it obligatory for the Diocese of Rome in 1573. In 1716 Pope Clement XI placed it in the universal calendar for the first Sunday in October. In the reform of the calendar it was returned to October 7. The Rosary ("rose garden") is called the "Psalter of Mary" because its 150 "Aves" (all 15 decades) correspond to the number of psalms. The Rosary has been called the "Jesus Prayer" of Western Catholicism. While saying the prayers of each decade, the person meditates on the mysteries of our Lord and Lady's life. In addition to the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, Pope John Paul II recommended that the Luminous Mysteries be recited on Thursdays. These "Mysteries of Light" are drawn from the life of Christ, and the public revelation of his divine nature and mission.

“The Rosary draws from the Gospel the presentation of the mysteries and its main formulas. As it moves from the angel's joyful greeting and the Virgin's pious assent, the Rosary takes its inspiration from the Gospel to suggest the attitude with which the faithful should recite it. In the harmonious succession of Hail Mary's, the Rosary puts before us once more a fundamental mystery of the Gospel--the incarnation of the Word, contemplated at the decisive moment of the Annunciation of Mary. The Rosary is thus a Gospel prayer, as pastors and scholars like to define it, more today perhaps then in the past.” (Pope St Paul VI, Marialis Cultus, 44)