On October 7, 1571, a great naval battle took place in the Ionian Sea west of Greece. Pope St. Pius V had asked the Christian world to pray the Rosary for its navy’s success against the navy of the Ottoman Empire which was threatening Italy, preventing travel in the Mediterranean Sea, and enslaving kidnapped Christians. After a resounding victory for the Christians, in gratitude, Pope Pius instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory. Later, the name of the feast was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Rosary is a spiritual weapon that has defeated heresies and other evils since the 13th Century. When our Blessed Mother appeared to the three children in Fatima in 1917, she told them to pray the Rosary so that World War I would end. It did. But she warned that if humanity did not change its sinful ways and continue praying a worse war would break out. And so, it did.
Then, in 1962, the world found itself on the brink of a nuclear war as the Soviet Union shipped missiles to Cuba. Pope St. John XXIII asked for prayers for peace. In 2022, looking back, Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach said: “It is quite possible that the prayerful recitation of the Rosary during the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis diverted world disaster. While powerful leaders made important decisions, the prayers of ordinary citizens made the true difference.”
Four years later, Pope St. Paul VI asked the faithful to pray the Rosary for peace. He wrote:
For the danger of a more serious and extensive calamity hangs over the human family and has increased, especially in parts of eastern Asia where a bloody and hard-fought war is raging. So We feel most urgently that We must once again do what We can to safeguard peace. We are also disturbed by what We know to be going on in other areas, such as the growing nuclear armaments race, the senseless nationalism, the racism, the obsession for revolution, the separations imposed upon citizens, the nefarious plots, the slaughter of innocent people. All of these can furnish material for the greatest calamity.
And now, in our own time, Pope Leo XIV has asked us to pray the Rosary. At his Wednesday General Audience on September 24, he said: “Dear brothers and sisters, the month of October is now approaching, and in the Church it is dedicated in a special way to the Holy Rosary. Therefore, I invite everyone, every day of the coming month, to pray the Rosary for peace: personally, in the family, in the community.”
On this feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, let’s commit ourselves to using what Pope Leo XIII, in an 1883 encyclical, called “an effective spiritual weapon.” Miraculous victories due to this prayer need not be a thing of the past!