Our Lady of the Rosary

Mary, the Mother of God, is the Patroness of the Order of Preachers, as well as other religious orders. Each of them has a special veneration for Her. In the tradition of various religious orders, She appears at their beginnings. This is also the case in the Dominican Order. It is She who reveals herself to St. Dominic, as well as co-founder Bl. Reginald of Orléans, who it is from Her that he receives the scapular. The order's third general, Bl. Humbert of Romans (ca. 1194-1277) had already written about her guarding role in the order. He ruled the order from 1254 to 1263, just four decades after its founding. He wrote, among other things: "Certain events that took place at the beginning of our Order give many reasons from which to conclude that the Blessed Virgin Mary is its special Patroness. From what I myself have heard with my own ears, and from many more facts described in the Lives of the Brothers, we see that she is the special Mother of this Order, which exists to glorify, bless and proclaim Her Son, the Order that She has called, expands and defends. Therefore, Saint Dominic in his prayers entrusts his Order to Her as a special Protector, as we read about it in the New Legend. For this reason, in the daily procession we entrust ourselves to her as our Mother, just as we remember Saint Dominic."

Worship of the Mother of God is particularly associated with the Rosary devotion. The tradition of the Catholic Church attributes its origin and development precisely to the Dominican order. It relates the origins of the Rosary to St. Dominic, who - according to this tradition - received the Rosary from Mary herself. And although the history of the Rosary is a bit different and its origins are associated not with the Patriarch of the Order of Preachers, but with the Carthusian St. Dominic of Prussia. The legend of Dominic receiving the Rosary from Mary comes only from 15th-century Dominican Alan de la Roche (also de Rupe, ca. 1428-1475). It reports that during the time of the Albigensians in southern France in the second half of the 12th and early 13th centuries, Dominic was disheartened by the lack of success in preaching against their teachings and turned to Our Lady for help. She is said to have appeared to him and told him to use his psalter, in conjunction with his teaching, as a tool in the fight against the great heresy of his time. Marian Psalter, which consisted of reciting 150 "Ave Maria” instead of 150 psalms. It was this psalter that gave rise to the Rosary prayer.

Created by Alan de la Roche, it was widely accepted until the 17th century, when Bollandists concluded that the account of Dominic's alleged apparition of Our Lady of the Rosary was not mentioned in any previous documents of the Catholic Church or the Dominican Order.

In the 16th century Our Lady and the Rosary prayer took on another important character. It is associated with the Battle of Lepanto, waged against Turkish troops. There was a fear that Turkey might occupy Europe, which could threaten Christianity. The concerns where even higher when Turkish ships began to approach Italy and threaten Rome. In response to the growing power of the Ottoman Empire, Pope Pius V established the Holy League in Rome in 1570, which included the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of Venice and the Church State; the Order of Malta and Genoa also promised assistance. These countries organized a fleet, which they sent against Muslim ships. On October 7, 1571, a naval battle took place at Lepanto (now Nafpaktos in Greece), in which the Turks suffered defeat.

The success in this battle was attributed by the Christian world, especially the Catholic world, to the intercession of the Mother of God. Hence, Rosary processions were organized on the anniversary of the victory. There is a well-known religious procession in Rome, which Pope Pius V presided over on the fourth anniversary of the victorious battle. The procession was accompanied by an image of Our Lady of the Snows (Salus Populi Romani), and a rosary service was held at the Dominican church of Maria sopra Minerva. Marian themes were also present in the triumphal entry of the papal army commander - Marcantonio Colonna - into the Eternal City. Pope Pius V announced the day that marked the anniversary of the victory at Lepanto the liturgical memory of Our Lady of Victory and introduced the invocation "Help of Christians, pray for us" into the Litany of Loretto. His successor Gregory XIII changed this memorial to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and designated the first Sunday in October as the Feast of the Holy Rosary.

Not surprisingly, it was to the care of Our Lady of the Rosary that the early Dominicans entrusted their church and monastery, as well as all of Peru. Thanks to the first bishops, who came from the preaching order, her cult spread beyond the Dominican monasteries, was present in dioceses and even in other monasteries. Hierarchs and monks also promoted rosary prayer and established rosary confraternities, where this prayer was practiced in particular.