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Title: |
Supremi Apostolatus Officio
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Descr.: |
On Devotion Of The Rosary
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Pope: |
Pope Leo XIII
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Date: |
September 1, 1883
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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.
1.
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 despatch 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.
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