Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary is one of the most widespread images in Catholic devotion: the Virgin with the rosary beads in her hands. The origin of the cult is attributed to an apparition to Saint Dominic in 1208 at Prouille, in the first convent he had founded. The Rosary as we know it, though, took shape slowly, over the centuries, from the habit of replacing the one hundred fifty psalms — which lay people couldn’t read — with one hundred fifty Hail Marys counted on the beads. The feast began under another name. Pius V established it as “Our Lady of Victory,” to commemorate the Battle of Lepanto of October 7, 1571, in which the fleet of the Holy League defeated the Ottoman fleet. Catholics attributed the victory to the protection of Mary, invoked with the Rosary before the battle; his successor, Gregory XIII, turned it into the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It should be said that about forty thousand people died at Lepanto in five hours, and that it was one of the bloodiest battles in history. Miguel de Cervantes lost the use of his left hand there. The devotion has remained one of the most popular there is: in October, the month of the Rosary, across much of Italy people still pray it in their homes and courtyards. The Smorfia puts the Madonna at number eight. If your name is Rosaria or Rosario, today is your name day.