Why is October referred to as the Month of the Rosary?
October is dedicated as the Month of the Rosary because we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary each year on October 7.
In the 16th century, the Islamic Ottoman Empire presented a serious military threat to Western Europe and sent a fleet of ships to attack Christian defenses in southern Europe. Pope Pius V recognized the grave danger and organized a fleet called the Holy League to confront the navy of the Ottoman Turks.
On October 7, 1571, the two navies engaged in a pivotal battle that would determine who controlled maritime traffic in the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas. The fate of Western Europe depended upon the success of Christians in this navy battle.
Pius V knew he needed more than just military strength to defend Christian Europe, so he asked that all the faithful pray the rosary, requesting the intercession of the Blessed Mother. At the end of the Battle of Lepanto, the Holy League was victorious and the maritime expansion of the Ottoman Empire was permanently prevented. The next year, Pius V established a feast on October 7 in honor of the Blessed Mother, originally called Our Lady of Victory. After a few centuries, the name was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary to more clearly recognize that prayer was the greatest power at work that day on the seas.
In 1571, the rosary was still a relatively new prayer form for the universal church. Pope Pius V had issued a decree formally establishing devotion to the rosary just two years before the Battle of Lepanto.
The rosary is a living prayer form and continues to develop even in recent times. An invocation known as the Fatima Prayer was commonly added in the early 20th century. In 2002 Pope John Paul II added a new set of five reflections called the Luminous Mysteries which encourage additional meditations on the life of Jesus.
The wealth of spiritual graces offered through the rosary comes not from the multiplication of prayers (see Matthew 6:7) but from the imitation of Christ through obedience to the Father’s will, according to the example of the Blessed Mother.
Are we and our country in our own Battle of Lepanto? Just as Pius V asked all the faithful to pray the rosary, requesting the intercession of the Blessed Mother, we too, can pray the rosary to defeat the pandemic and civil unrest in our country today,
