Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

The entire month of October is consecrated by the Church to Mary of the Rosary. Our Founder, Fr. Grittani, left us with the tradition and spirituality of devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. From our Father Founder, we learn the following about our Congregation’s devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary: In our Church, every evening, half an hour before Our Blessed Mother Mary, Holy Rosary is recited, before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. “Every evening, oh friends of the Opera, you come to pray with the Holy Rosary to the Holy Virgin, who has had so much in the development of the Opera that she inaugurated her Church precisely in the feast of the Rosary. It is a debt of gratitude. May the Blessed Virgin manifest her maternal protection for the Opera, imploring us from God for the grace to achieve an ardent vow of ours.” (Fr. Ambrogio Grittani Am. 27, 01-10-1944)

Our Lady of the Rosary also known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in relation to the Rosary. On October 7, in the year 1571, Pope St. Pius V instituted "Our Lady of Victory" as an annual feast to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Lepanto. The victory was attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as a rosary procession had been offered on that day in St. Peter's Square in Rome for the success of the mission of the Holy League to hold back Muslim forces from overrunning Western Europe. In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title of this feast-day to "Feast of the Holy Rosary". Pope Clement XI extended this feast to the whole of the Latin Rite, inserting it into the Roman Catholic calendar of Saints in 1716, and assigning it to the first Sunday in October. Pope Pius X changed the date to 7 October in 1913, as part of his effort to restore celebration of the liturgy of the Sundays.

Prior to the Battle of Lepanto, in thanks for the victory of the Battle of Muret, Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester built the first shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Victory.

Our Lady of the Rosary is the Patron Saint of several Churches around the world and Maríadel Rosario is a common female Spanish name (colloquially abbreviated to Rosario or Charo). Rosario can also be used as a male first name, particularly in Italian. There are families, belonging to Anglo-Indian Community, in and around Fort Cochin who hold Rozario or D'Rozario as their Surname.

Our Lady revealed the devotion of the rosary to St. Dominic. It was born, therefore, in a private revelation. Although it came from a private revelation, the praying of the Rosary was extended to the entire Catholic Church.

The practice of praying the Rosary to beg a grace from God supposes the theological truth that Our Lady is the Universal Mediatrix or instrument of all graces. It is, therefore, a small masterpiece of spirituality and Catholic doctrine as they should be understood.

We know from history that the victory of the Battle of Lepanto was achieved when St. Pius V interrupted a meeting with Cardinals at the Vatican and went to a window and started to pray the Rosary. He was deeply concerned about the future of the Church and Christendom that was being decided in those Mediterranean waters. After the Pontiff finished praying the Rosary, he returned to the meeting and told the Cardinals that the Catholic fleet had been victorious. That is, he had a revelation while he was praying the Rosary. It was the way Our Lady showed him that she linked that victory to his praying of the Rosary. Understanding this, St. Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which was extended to the whole Church in commemoration for another great victory over the Mohammedans in 1716.