Irish Dominican
Rosary Apostolate

The Rosary has been loved and prayed throughout the centuries by countless millions of people from all walks of life: saints, mystics, Popes, married men and women, religious, and priests. People of all ages and walks of life have found deep peace and abundant graces from this powerful prayer. Pope St John Paul II wrote the following about the Rosary in his encyclical letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae: “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it remains, at the dawn of the third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of souls.” At the heart of the Rosary is Christ, whom we discover and come to know in a profound way. As Pope St John Paul teaches: “With the Rosary, the Christian people sit at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae 1).

The Rosary is a powerful instrument of Christian contemplation, transformation, and intercession through the hands of the Mother of God. It has been the source of countless miracles both at the level of nations and in the lives of individual people. It has literally changed history, whether at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, the miracle of the Vistula in 1920, or in the lives of people such as St Bartolo Longo and St Pier Giorgio Frassatti. Indeed, at Fatima in 1917, Our Blessed Mother revealed that the Rosary was an integral part of heaven’s peace plan for our troubled world.