10/07/2026
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary,
Feast Day : October 7
A title of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This feast was instituted by Pope St. Pius V in thanksgiving for the great naval victory over the Turks at the battle of Lepanto on this day in the year 1570, a favor due to the recitation of the Rosary. This victory saved Europe from being overrun by the forces of Islam.
Prior to the ships sailing off towards battle, Pope Pius V prayed the rosary, asking for Our Lady’s intercession in victory, and every man on board carried a rosary. That battle was the most convincing military victory that proved without a doubt the great power of the Rosary. At the exact hour of this stunning triumph, the Pope, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting and gone to a window where he exclaimed with a supernatural radiance on his face “the Christian fleet is victorious!” He then wept in thanksgiving to God.
The Battle of Lepanto was first celebrated liturgically as “Our Lady of Victory,” instituted by Pope Pius V. A second victory gained that year on the Octave of the Assumption determined Pope Clement XI to command the Feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church.
Hence, the feast of October 7 was renamed “Our Lady of the Rosary,” and extended throughout the Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716. Leo XIII added the invocation "Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us," to the Litany of Loretto. The Feast is in reality a great festival of thanksgiving for the signal and countless benefits bestowed on Christendom through the Rosary of our blessed Queen.
Pope Leo XIII was particularly devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary and produced 11 encyclicals on the subject of this feast and its importance to him.
At Fatima, Our Blessed Mother confirmed her title when asked her name, answering, “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”Our Blessed Virgin Mother herself has asked us in her apparitions to pray the rosary daily for the conversion of sinners and of the world.
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
