(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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Supremi
Apostolatus Officio (Leo
XIII) On Devotion
of the Rosary
Encyclical of
Pope Leo XIII promulgated on September 1, 1883.
To all the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic World
in the Grace and Communion of the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health and the Apostolic Benediction.
The supreme Apostolic office which we discharge and the exceedingly difficult
condition of these times, daily warn and almost compel Us to watch carefully
over the integrity of the Church, the more that the calamities from which she
suffers are
greater. While, therefore, we endeavor in every way to preserve the rights of
the Church and to obviate or repel present or contingent dangers, We constantly
seek for help from Heaven--the sole means of effecting anything--that our labors
and our care may obtain their wished for object. We deem that there could be no
surer and more efficacious means to this end than by religion and piety to
obtain the favor of the great Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the guardian of
our peace and the minister to us of heavenly grace, who is placed on the highest
summit of power and glory in Heaven, in order that she may bestow the help of
her patronage on men who through so many labors and dangers are striving to
reach that eternal city. Now that the anniversary, therefore, of manifold and
exceedingly great favors obtained by a Christian people through the devotion of
the Rosary is at hand, We desire that that same devotion should be offered by
the whole Catholic world with the greatest earnestness to the Blessed Virgin,
that by her intercession her Divine Son may be appeased and softened in the
evils which afflict us. And therefore We determined, Venerable Brethren, to dispatch
to you these letters in order that, informed of Our designs, your authority and
zeal might excite the piety of your people to conform themselves to them.
2. It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to
fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in her maternal goodness; showing
that the Catholic Church has always, and with justice, put all her hope and
trust in the Mother of God. And truly the Immaculate Virgin, chosen to be the
Mother of God and thereby associated with Him in the work of man's salvation,
has a favor and power with her Son greater than any human or angelic creature
has ever obtained, or ever can gain. And, as it is her greatest pleasure to
grant her help and comfort to those who seek her, it cannot be doubted that she
would deign, and even be anxious, to receive the aspirations of the universal
Church.
3. This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven, has
never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has
seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy spread abroad, or by an
intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies. Ancient and
modern history and the more sacred annals of the Church bear witness to public
and private supplications addressed to the Mother of God, to the help she has
granted in return, and to the peace and tranquility which she had obtained from
God. Hence her illustrious titles of helper, consoler, mighty in war,
victorious, and peace-giver. And amongst these is specially to be commemorated
that familiar title derived from the Rosary by which the signal benefits she has
gained for the whole of Christendom have been solemnly perpetuated. There is
none among you, venerable brethren, who will not remember how great trouble and
grief God's Holy Church suffered from the Albigensian heretics, who sprung from
the sect of the later Manicheans, and who filled the South of France and other
portions of the Latin world with their pernicious errors, and carrying
everywhere the terror of their arms, strove far and wide to rule by massacre and
ruin. Our merciful God, as you know, raised up against these most direful
enemies a most holy man, the illustrious parent and founder of the Dominican
Order. Great in the integrity of his doctrine, in his example of virtue, and by
his apostolic labors, he proceeded undauntedly to attack the enemies of the
Catholic Church, not by force of arms, but trusting wholly to that devotion
which he was the first to institute under the name of the Holy Rosary, which was
disseminated through the length and breadth of the earth by him and his pupils.
Guided, in fact, by divine inspiration and grace, he foresaw that this devotion,
like a most powerful warlike weapon, would be the means of putting the enemy to
flight, and of confounding their audacity and mad impiety. Such was indeed its
result. Thanks to this new method of prayer--when adopted and properly carried
out as instituted by the Holy Father St. Dominic--piety, faith, and union began
to return, and the projects and devices of the heretics to fall to pieces. Many
wanderers also returned to the way of salvation, and the wrath of the impious
was restrained by the arms of those Catholics who had determined to repel their
violence.
4. The efficacy and power of this devotion was also wondrously exhibited in the
sixteenth century, when the vast forces of the Turks threatened to impose on
nearly the whole of Europe the yoke of superstition and barbarism. At that time
the Supreme Pontiff, St. Pius V., after rousing the sentiment of a common
defense among all the Christian princes, strove, above all, with the greatest
zeal, to obtain for Christendom the favor of the most powerful Mother of God. So
noble an example offered to heaven and earth in those times rallied around him
all the minds and hearts of the age. And thus Christ's faithful warriors,
prepared to sacrifice their life and blood for the salvation of their faith and
their country, proceeded undauntedly to meet their foe near the Gulf of Corinth,
while those who were unable to take part formed a pious band of supplicants, who
called on Mary, and unitedly saluted her again and again in the words of the
Rosary, imploring her to grant the victory to their companions engaged in
battle. Our Sovereign Lady did grant her aid; for in the naval battle by the
Echinades Islands, the Christian fleet gained a magnificent victory, with no
great loss to itself, in which the enemy were routed with great slaughter. And
it was to preserve the memory of this great boon thus granted, that the same
Most Holy Pontiff desired that a feast in honor of Our Lady of Victories should
celebrate the anniversary of so memorable a struggle, the feast which Gregory
XIII. dedicated under the title of "The Holy Rosary." Similarly, important
successes were in the last century gained over the Turks at Temeswar, in
Pannonia, and at Corfu; and in both cases these engagements coincided with
feasts of the Blessed Virgin and with the conclusion of public devotions of the
Rosary. And this led our predecessor, Clement XI., in his gratitude, to decree
that the Blessed Mother of God should every year be especially honored in her
Rosary by the whole Church.
5. Since, therefore, it is clearly evident that this form of prayer is
particularly pleasing to the Blessed Virgin, and that it is especially suitable
as a means of defense for the Church and all Christians, it is in no way
wonderful that several others of Our Predecessors have made it their aim to
favor and increase its spread by their high recommendations. Thus Urban IV.
testified that "every day the Rosary obtained fresh boon for Christianity."
Sixtus IV. declared that this method of prayer "redounded to the honor of God
and the Blessed Virgin, and was well suited to obviate impending dangers;" Leo
X. that "it was instituted to oppose pernicious heresiarchs and heresies;" while
Julius III. called it "the glory of the Church." So also St. Pius V., that "with
the spread of this devotion the meditations of the faithful have begun to be
more inflamed, their prayers more fervent, and they have suddenly become
different men; the darkness of heresy has been dissipated, and the light of
Catholic faith has broken forth again." Lastly Gregory XIII. in his turn
pronounced that "the Rosary had been instituted by St. Dominic to appease the
anger of God and to implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary."
6. Moved by these thoughts and by the examples of Our Predecessors, We have
deemed it most opportune for similar reasons to institute solemn prayers
and to endeavor by adopting those addressed to the Blessed Virgin in the recital
of the Rosary to obtain from her son Jesus Christ a similar aid against present
dangers. You have before your eyes, Venerable Brethren, the trials to which the
Church is daily exposed; Christian piety, public morality, nay, even faith
itself, the supreme good and beginning of all the other virtues, all are daily
menaced with the greatest perils.
7. Nor are you only spectators of the difficulty of the situation, but your
charity, like Ours, is keenly wounded; for it is one of the most painful and
grievous sights to see so many souls, redeemed by the blood of Christ, snatched
from salvation by the whirlwind of an age of error, precipitated into the abyss
of eternal death. Our need of divine help is as great today as when the great
Dominic introduced the use of the Rosary of Mary as a balm for the wounds of his
contemporaries.
8. That great saint indeed, divinely enlightened, perceived that no remedy would
be more adapted to the evils of his time than that men should return to Christ,
who "is the way, the truth, and the life," by frequent meditation on the
salvation obtained for Us by Him, and should seek the intercession with God of
that Virgin, to whom it is given to destroy all heresies. He therefore so
composed the Rosary as to recall the mysteries of our salvation in succession,
and the subject of meditation is mingled and, as it were, interlaced with the
Angelic salutation and with the prayer addressed to God, the Father of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. We, who seek a remedy for similar evils, do not doubt therefore
that the prayer introduced by that most blessed man with so much advantage to
the Catholic world, will have the greatest effect in removing the calamities of
our times also. Not only do We earnestly exhort all Christians to give
themselves to the recital of the pious devotion of the Rosary publicly, or
privately in their own house and family, and that unceasingly, but we also
desire that the whole of the month of October in this year should be consecrated
to the Holy Queen of the Rosary. We decree and order that in the whole Catholic
world, during this year, the devotion of the Rosary shall be solemnly celebrated
by special and splendid services. From the first day of next October, therefore,
until the second day of the November following, in every parish and, if the
ecclesiastical authority deem it opportune and of use, in every chapel dedicated
to the Blessed Virgin--let five decades of the Rosary be recited with the
addition of the Litany of Loreto. We desire that the people should frequent
these pious exercises; and We will that either Mass shall be said at the altar,
or that the Blessed Sacrament shall be exposed to the adoration of the faithful,
Benediction being afterwards given with the Sacred Host to the pious
congregation. We highly approve of the confraternities of the Holy Rosary of the
Blessed Virgin going in procession, following ancient custom, through the town,
as a public demonstration of their devotion. And in those places where this is
not possible, let it be replaced by more assiduous visits to the churches, and
let the fervor of piety display itself by a still greater diligence in the
exercise of the Christian virtues.
9. In favor of those who shall do as We have above laid down, We are pleased to
open the heavenly treasure-house of the Church that they may find therein at
once encouragements and rewards for their piety. We therefore grant to all those
who, in the prescribed space of time, shall have taken part in the public
recital of the Rosary and the Litanies, and shall have prayed for Our intention,
seven years and seven times forty days of indulgence, obtainable each time. We
will that those also shall share in these favors who are hindered by a lawful
cause from joining in these public prayers of which We have spoken, provided
that they shall have practiced those devotions in private and shall have prayed
to God for Our intention. We remit all punishment and penalties for sins
committed, in the form of a Pontifical indulgence, to all who, in the prescribed
time, either publicly in the churches or privately at home (when hindered from
the former by lawful cause) shall have at least twice practiced these pious
exercises; and who shall have, after due confession, approached the holy table.
We further grant a plenary indulgence to those who, either on the feast of the
Blessed Virgin of the Rosary or within its octave, after having similarly
purified their souls by a salutary confession, shall have approached the table
of Christ and prayed in some church according to Our intention to God and the
Blessed Virgin for the necessities of the Church.
10. And you, Venerable Brethren,--the more you have at heart the honor of Mary,
and the welfare of human society, the more diligently apply yourselves to
nourish the piety of the people towards the great Virgin, and to increase their
confidence in her. We believe it to be part of the designs of Providence that,
in these times of trial for the Church, the ancient devotion to the august
Virgin should live and flourish amid the greatest part of the Christian world.
May now the Christian nations, excited by Our exhortations, and inflamed by your
appeals, seek the protection of Mary with an ardor growing greater day by day;
let them cling more and more to the practice of the Rosary, to that devotion
which our ancestors were in the habit of practicing, not only as an ever-ready
remedy for their misfortunes, but as a whole badge of Christian piety. The
heavenly Patroness of the human race will receive with joy these prayers and
supplications, and will easily obtain that the good shall grow in virtue, and
that the erring should return to salvation and repent; and that God who is the
avenger of crime, moved to mercy and pity may deliver Christendom and civil
society from all dangers, and restore to them peace so much desired.
11. Encouraged by this hope, We beseech God Himself, with the most earnest
desire of Our heart, through her in whom he has placed the fullness of all good,
to grant you. Venerable Brethren, every gift of heavenly blessing. As an augury
and pledge of which, We lovingly impart to you, to your clergy, and to the
people entrusted to your care, the Apostolic Benediction.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, the 1st of September, 1883, in the sixth year of
Our Pontificate.