"It was the custom in the Middle Ages, as formerly among the Romans, for noble personages to wear crowns of flowers called chaplets. These crowns were offered to persons of distinction as a feudal due. Our Lady, as Queen of Heaven and of souls, has a right to the same homage: wherefore, the Church asks us to recognize the title of Mary as Queen of the Holy Rosary, and to offer her a triple chaplet of roses, to which she has given the name of Rosary.
This feast [of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary] was instituted as a special commemoration of the victory gained at Lepanto, on Sunday October 7, 1571, when the forces of Islam threatening to invade Europe were broken: a favor due to the recitation of the Rosary. Prescribed by Gregory XIII for certain churches, it was extended to the Catholic world by Clement XI in thanksgiving for another triumph over the same enemy in Hungary in 1716 by the Emperor Charles VI, and raised to the rank of second Class by Leo XIII, to obtain Our Lady's help amidst the present trials of the Church."
CALL TO ACTION: Pray all 15 decades of the Rosary daily with great confidence in Our Lady's promise that "you shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary."
Source: St. Andrew Daily Missal; copyright 1949, page 906; Imprimatur: Samuel Cardinalis Stritch; Nihil Obstat: J. Gerald Kealy, D.D.