Happy feast of THE MOST HOLY ROSARY!
May we pray the daily rosary and may Our Lady of the Rosary give us the grace to persevere.
Holy Mother Church has also granted many indulgences for praying the Holy Rosary — may we not squander the opportunity of gaining any one of these indulgences.
St. Dominic, the founder of the order of Friar Preachers, having recourse to the Blessed Virgin in order to stem the flood of the Albigensian heresy, which was spreading itself like a plague over many countries, but especially over France, instituted, by special revelation from her, in the year 1206, and afterwards very effectually promulgated, the devotion of the holy Rosary, which ever since has produced now for many ages the most marvellous results in the Christian world.
In order to animate all the faithful often to have recourse to the Blessed Virgin by using this devotion, Pope Benedict XIII. granted, by his Brief, Sanctissimus, of April 13, 1726, to all who say with contrition the whole Rosary of fifteen decades, or the third part of it of five decades –
i. An indulgence of 100 days for every Pater noster and every Ave Maria.
ii. A plenary indulgence to all who shall say the third part of it once every day for a year; on any one day in the year, after Confession and Communion.
The present Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX., by a decree of the S. Congr. of Indulgences of May 12, 1851, confirmed these Indulgences, and granted besides –
iii. An indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines to every one who with contrition shall say a third part of the Rosary in company with others, either in public or private.
iv. A plenary Indulgence, on the last Sunday in every month, to all who are in the habit of saying with others, at least three times a week, the said third part of the Rosary; provided that on that Sunday they shall, after Confession and Communion, visit a church or public oratory, and pray there for a time according to the mind of his Holiness.
To gain these Indulgences it is requisite that the Rosaries should be blessed by religious of the order of Friar-Preachers, and that, during the recital of the Rosary, meditation be made on the mysteries of the Birth, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the decree of the S. Congr. of Indulgences of August 12, 1726, approved by the above-named Pope Benedict XIII.
Note, moreover, that our holy Father declared, in his Constitution Pretiosus, of May 16, 1727, § 4, that simple people who could not meditate might obtain the Indulgence by merely saying the Rosary devoutly.
Observe also that all persons enrolled in the Confraternity of the Rosary, wherever It has been canonically erected, gain many other Indulgences when they say the Rosary, or do any other pious work.
See the Brief of the venerable Pontiff Innocent XI., Nuper pro parte, of July 31, 1679; also another Brief of Pius VII., Ad augendam, of February 16, 1808, and the above-named decree of Pope Pius IX., of May 12, 1851.
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