Our Lady of the Rosary

"Our Lady of Victory" redirects here.
For other uses of this name, see Our Lady of Victory (disambiguation) or Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila
Our Lady of the Rosary
Our Lady of Victory, Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Major shrine Our Lady of Victory Basilica,
Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris
Feast October 7
Attributes Blessed Virgin Mary, Infant Jesus, crown, rosary
Patronage Rosary, Roman Catholic Diocese of Malaga, Toledo, Rosario, Santa Fe, Melilla, Trujillo, Cáceres, Colombia, Manizales, Puyo, Pastaza, North Carolina, Bohol, Guatemala, Surigao del Norte, Manila, Quezon City, West Virginia, Seseña, Ontígola, Olías del Rey, Montearagón, Toledo, Lagartera, Huerta de Valdecarábanos, Brenes

Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in relation to the Rosary.

The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary, is a feast day of the Roman Catholic Church, celebrated on 7 October, the anniversary of the decisive victory of the combined fleet of the Holy League of 1571 over the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto.

Our Lady of Victory

Our Lady of Victory

In 1571, Pope St. Pius V organized a coalition of forces from Spain and smaller Christian kingdoms, republics and military orders, to rescue Christian outposts in Cyprus, particularly the Venetian outpost at Famagusta which, however, surrendered after a long siege on August 1 before the Christian forces set sail. On October 7, 1571, the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, sailed from Messina, Sicily, and met a powerful Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct materiel disadvantage, the holy pontiff, Pope Pius V, called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory,[1][2] and led a rosary procession in Rome.[3]

After about five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece, the combined navies of the Papal States, Venice and Spain managed to stop the Ottoman navy, slowing the Ottoman advance to the west and denying them access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas.[4] If the Ottomans had won then there was a real possibility that an invasion of Italy could have followed so that the Ottoman sultan, already claiming to be emperor of the Romans, would have been in possession of both New and Old Rome.[5] Combined with the unfolding events in Morocco where the Sa’adids successfully spurned the Ottoman advances, it confined Turkish naval power to the eastern Mediterranean.[4] Although the Ottoman Empire was able to build more ships, it never fully recovered from the loss of trained sailors and marines, and was never again the Mediterranean naval power it had become the century before when Constantinople fell.

Feast day

Pius V instituted "Our Lady of Victory" as an annual feast to commemorate the victory at Lepanto, which he attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.[3] Dedications to Our Lady of Victory preceded this papal declaration. In particular, Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester built the first shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Victory in thanks for the Catholic victory over the Albigensians at the Battle of Muret on September 12, 1213.[3]

In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title of the "Feast of Our Lady of Victory" to "Feast of the Holy Rosary".[6] Dominican friar Juan Lopez in his 1584 book on the rosary states that the feast of the rosary was offered "in memory and in perpetual gratitude of the miraculous victory that the Lord gave to his Christian people that day against the Turkish armada".[7]

In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI, after the victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene in the Battle of Petrovaradin on 6 August 1716 (the feast of Our Lady of the Snows), commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church, assigning it to the first Sunday in October.

A set of "proper" lessons in the second nocturn were conceded by Benedict XIII. Leo XIII raised the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary". On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of Our Lady. This has been called the "Portiuncula" of the Rosary.

Pius X in 1913 changed the date to 7 October, as part of his effort to restore celebration of the liturgy of the Sundays. In 1960 Pope John XXIII changed the title to "Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary".

Patronage

Our Lady of the Rosary is the patron saint of several places around the world. The diocese of Malaga, Spain (which, however celebrates her patronage on September 8), and the Spanish cities of Melilla and Trujillo celebrate Our Lady of Victories as their patroness. Furthermore, María del Rosario is a common female Spanish name (colloquially abbreviated to Rosario or Charo). Rosario can also be used as a male first name, particularly in Italian.

Churches named for Our Lady of the Rosary

The cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary is located in Duluth, Minnesota.[8] The cathedral church of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, is also named in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary.[9] The church of Our Lady of the Rosary on State Street in New York City began in 1883 as the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the protection of Irish immigrant girls; it houses the shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.[10]

Churches named for Our Lady of Victory

Our Lady of Victory, NYC.Downtown, William St. & Chase Plaza

Although the title Our Lady of Victory has been superseded to some extent by that of Our Lady of the Rosary, the former is still in popular use at a number of parishes and schools.

Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris is an historic Marian shrine and place of pilgrimage. Augustinian friars built it in 1629 with financial assistance from Louis XIII, who named the church Notre-Dame des Victoires in gratitude for the victory of French forces over the Huguenots at the Siege of La Rochelle (1627-8).[11]

The Church of Our Lady of Victory (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné) in Prague, housing the 16th-century Infant Jesus of Prague.

Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, San Francisco was founded in 1856 to serve French Catholic immigrants to California. In 1887, Pope Leo signed the decree putting l'Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires in charge of the Marists, and making it a French National Church. The church was rebuilt in 1915 after the Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and was declared an historical landmark in 1984.

Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica is located in Lackawanna, New York.[12] Our Lady of Victory is the cathedral church for the Diocese of Victoria, Texas.[13] The church of Our Lady of Victory, also known as the War Memorial Church, in the financial district of Manhattan, New York City, was dedicated to Our Lady of Victory by Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York and apostolic vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces on June 23, 1947 " ... in Thanksgiving for Victory won by our valiant dead, our soldiers' blood, our country’s tears, shed to defend men’s rights and win back men’s hearts to God."[14] The chapel at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota, is named for Our Lady of Victory, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[15]

St. Mary of Victories Hungarian Catholic Church is located in St. Louis, Missouri.[16] St. Mary's was built in 1843, and is the second oldest Catholic Church within the city limits. Originally home to German immigrants, the parish became home to the Hungarian Community in 1957 and is the official Hungarian Church for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The church also enjoys St. Stephen of Hungary as a co-patron. The church is one of the few consecrated churches in the archdiocese, having been granted that designation by Pope Pius IX. The high altar and side altars within the church are home to around 280 relics, many given by Pope Leo XIII upon the occasion of granting an indulgence to the altar. Among the notable historical figures associated with the church, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R., itinerant German Redemptorist priest, preached a parish mission for two weeks in October 1865. St. Mary's is in possession of a 1st class relic of Fr. Seelos, and one of the 5 known death masks made of the pending saint. The Franciscan Sisters of St. Mary also got their start (and their name) at this parish, and went on to found the SSM Health System based in St. Louis.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chesterton, Gilbert.Lepanto, Ignatius Press, 2004, ISBN 1-58617-030-9
  2. ↑ Butler's Lives Of The Saints (April) by Alban Butler (1999) ISBN 0-86012-253-0 page 222
  3. 1 2 3 Thurston, Herbert. "Feast of the Holy Rosary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 2 May 2013
  4. 1 2 Ahmed PhD., Prof. Nazeer. "Lepanto, the Battle of", History of Islam
  5. ↑ Melleuish, Gregory. "The significance of Lepanto", Quadrant, April 1, 2008
  6. ↑ Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church, Tannersville, Pennsylvania
  7. ↑ Libro en que se tratea de la importancia y exercicio del santo rosario, Zaragoza: Domingo Portonariis y Ursino (1584), cited after Lorenzo F. Candelaria, The Rosary Cantoral: Ritual and Social Design in a Chantbook from Early Renaissance Toledo, University Rochester Press (2008), p. 109.
  8. ↑ Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, Duluth, MN
  9. ↑ Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, San Bernardino, CA
  10. ↑ Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, State Street, NYC
  11. ↑ "Notre-Dame de Victoires", Eymardian Places
  12. ↑ Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica
  13. ↑ Our Lady of Victory Cathedral
  14. ↑ Our Lady of Victory Church, Manhattan
  15. ↑ "Our Lady of Victory Chapel", St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota
  16. ↑ "Historic St Mary of Victories Hungarian Catholic Church". smov.info. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
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