OCTOBRI
MENSE
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII
ON THE ROSARY
To
Our Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs,
Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other
Ordinaries having Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable
Brethren, Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.
At the
coming of the month of October, dedicated and consecrated as it is to
the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, we recall with satisfaction the instant
exhortations which in preceding years We addressed to you, venerable brethren,
desiring, as We did, that the faithful, urged by your authority and by
your zeal, should redouble their piety towards the august Mother of God,
the mighty helper of Christians, and should pray to her throughout the
month, invoking her by that most holy rite of the Rosary which the Church,
especially in the passage of difficult times, has ever used for the accomplishment
of all desires. This year once again do We publish Our wishes, once again
do We encourage you by the same exhortations. We are persuaded to this
in love for the Church, whose sufferings, far from mitigating, increase
daily in number and in gravity. Universal and well-known are the evils
we deplore: war made upon the sacred dogmas which the Church holds and
transmits; derision cast upon the integrity of that Christian morality
which she has in keeping; enmity declared, with the impudence of audacity
and with criminal malice, against the very Christ, as though the Divine
work of Redemption itself were to be destroyed from its foundation-that
work which, indeed, no adverse power shall ever utterly abolish or destroy.
2. No
new events are these in the career of the Church militant. Jesus foretold
them to His disciples. That she may teach men the truth and may guide
them to eternal salvation, she must enter upon a daily war; and throughout
the course of ages she has fought, even to martyrdom, rejoicing and glorifying
herself in nothing more than in the occasion of signing her cause with
her Founder's blood, the sure and certain pledge of the victory whereof
she holds the promise. Nevertheless we must not conceal the profound sadness
with which this necessity of constant war afflicts the righteous. It is
indeed a cause of great sorrow that so many should be deterred and led
astray by error and enmity to God; that so many should be indifferent
to all forms of religion, and should finally become estranged from faith;
that so many Catholics should be such in name only, and should pay to
religion no honour or worship. And still sadder and more beset with anxieties
grows the soul at the thought of the fruitful source
of most manifold evils existing in the organisation of States that allow
no place to the Church, and that oppose her championship of holy virtue.
This is truly a terrible manifestation of the just vengeance of God, Who
allows blindness of soul to darken upon the nations that forsake Him.
These are evils that cry aloud, that cry of themselves with a daily increasing
voice. It is absolutely necessary that the Catholic voice should also
call to God with unwearied instance, "without ceasing;"(1) that
the Faithful should pray not only in their own homes, but in public, gathered
together under the sacred roof; that they should beseech urgently the
all-foreseeing God to deliver the Church from evil men(2) and to bring
back the troubled nations to good sense and reason, by the light and love
of Christ.
3. Wonderful
and beyond hope or belief is this. The world goes on its laborious way,
proud of its riches, of its power, of its arms, of its genius; the Church
goes onward along the course of ages with an even step, trusting in God
only, to Whom, day and night, she lifts her eyes and her suppliant hands.
Even though in her prudence she neglects not the human aid which Providence
and the times afford her, not in these does she put her trust, which rests
in prayer, in supplication, in the invocation of God. Thus it is that
she renews her vital breath; the diligence of her prayer has caused her,
in her aloofness from worldly things and in her continual union with the
Divine will, to live the tranquil and peaceful life of Our very Lord Jesus
Christ; being herself the image of Christ, Whose happy and perpetual joy
was hardly marred by the horror of the torments He endured for us. This
important doctrine of Christian wisdom has been ever believed and practised
by Christians worthy of the name. Their prayers rise to God eagerly and
more frequently when the cunning and the violence of the perverse afflict
the Church and her supreme Pastor. Of this the faithful of the Church
in the East gave an example that should be offered to the imitation of
posterity. Peter, Vicar of Jesus Christ, and first Pontiff of the Church,
had been cast into prison, loaded with chains by the guilty Herod, and
left for certain death. None could carry him help or snatch him from the
peril. But there was the certain help that fervent prayer wins from God.
The Church, as the sacred story tells us, made prayer without ceasing
to God for him;(3) and the greater was the fear of a misfortune, the greater
was the fervour
of all who prayed to God. After the granting of their desires the miracle
stood revealed; and Christians still celebrate with a joyous gratitude
the marvel of the deliverance of Peter. Christ has given us a still more
memorable instance, a Divine instance, so that the Church might be formed
not upon his precepts only, but upon His example also. During His whole
life He had given Himself to frequent and fervent prayer, and in the supreme
hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, when His soul was filled with bitterness
and sorrow unto death, He prayed to His Father and prayed repeatedly.(4)
It was not for Himself that He prayed thus, for He feared nothing and
needed nothing, being God; He prayed for us, for His Church, whose prayers
and future tears He already then accepted with joy, to give them back
in mercies.
4. But
since the salvation of our race was accomplished by the mystery of the
Cross, and since the Church, dispenser of that salvation after the triumph
of Christ, was founded upon earth and instituted, Providence established
a new order for a new people. The consideration of the Divine counsels
is united to the great sentiment of religion. The Eternal Son of God,
about to take upon Him our nature for the saving and ennobling of man,
and about to consummate thus a mystical union between Himself and all
mankind, did not accomplish His design without adding there the free consent
of the elect Mother, who represented in some sort all human kind, according
to the illustrious and just opinion of St. Thomas, who says that the Annunciation
was effected with the consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity.(5)
With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary
is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure
of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus
Christ.(6) Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man
goeth to Christ but by His Mother. How great are the goodness and mercy
revealed in this design of God! What a correspondence with the frailty
of man! We believe in the infinite goodness of the Most High, and we rejoice
in it; we believe also in His justice and we fear it. We adore the beloved
Saviour, lavish of His blood and of His life; we dread the inexorable
Judge. Thus do those whose actions have disturbed their consciences need
an intercessor mighty in favour with God, merciful enough not to
reject the cause of the desperate, merciful enough to lift up again towards
hope in the divine mercy the afflicted and the broken down. Mary is this
glorious intermediary; she is the mighty Mother of the Almighty; but-what
is still sweeter-she is gentle, extreme in tenderness, of a limitless
loving-kindness. As such God gave her to us. Having chosen her for the
Mother of His only begotten Son, He taught her all a mother's feeling
that breathes nothing but pardon and love. Such Christ desired she should
be, for He consented to be subject to Mary and to obey her as a son a
mother. Such He proclaimed her from the cross when he entrusted to her
care and love the whole of the race of man in the person of His disciple
John. Such, finally, she proves herself by her courage in gathering in
the heritage of the enormous labours of her Son, and in accepting the
charge of her maternal duties towards us all.
5. The
design of this most dear mercy, realised by God in Mary and confirmed
by the testament of Christ, was comprehended at the beginning, and accepted
with the utmost joy by the Holy Apostles and the earliest believers. It
was the counsel and teaching of the venerable Fathers of the Church. All
the nations of the Christian age received it with one mind; and even when
literature and tradition are silent there is a voice that breaks from
every Christian breast and speaks with all eloquence. No other reason
is needed that that of a Divine faith which, by a powerful and most pleasant
impulse, persuades us towards Mary. Nothing is more natural, nothing more
desirable than to seek a refuge in the protection and in the loyalty of
her to whom we may confess our designs and our actions, our innocence
and our repentance, our torments and our joys, our prayers and our desires-all
our of fairs. All men, moreover, are filled with the hope and confidence
that petitions which might be received with less favour from the lips
of unworthy men, God will accept when they are recommended by the most
Holy Mother, and will grant with all favours. The truth and the sweetness
of these thoughts bring to the soul an unspeakable comfort; but they inspire
all the more compassion for those who, being without Divine faith, honour
not Mary and have her not for their mother; for those also who, holding
Christian faith, dare to accuse of excess the devotion to Mary, thereby
sorely wounding filial piety.
6. This
storm of evils, in the midst of which the
Church struggles so strenuously, reveals to all her pious children the
holy duty whereto they are bound to pray to God with instance, and the
manner in which they may give to their prayers the greater power. Faithful
to the religious example of our fathers, let us have recourse to Mary,
our holy Sovereign. Let us entreat, let us beseech, with one heart, Mary,
the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Mother. "Show thyself to be a mother;
cause our prayers to be accepted by Him Who, born for us, consented to
be thy Son."(7)
7. Now,
among the several rites and manners of paying honour to the Blessed Mary,
some are to be preferred, inasmuch as we know them to be most powerful
and most pleasing to our Mother; and for this reason we specially mention
by name and recommend the Rosary. The common language has given the name
of corona to this manner of prayer, which recalls to our minds the great
mysteries of Jesus and Mary united in joys, sorrows, and triumphs. The
contemplation of these august mysteries, contemplated in their order,
of fords to faithful souls a wonderful confirmation of faith, protection
against the disease of error, and increase of the strength of the soul.
The soul and memory of him who thus prays, enlightened by faith, are drawn
towards these mysteries by the sweetest devotion, are absorbed therein
and are surprised before the work of the Redemption of mankind, achieved
at such a price and by events so great. The soul is filled with gratitude
and love before these proofs of Divine love; its hope becomes enlarged
and its desire is increased for those things which Christ has prepared
for such as have united themselves to Him in imitation of His example
and in participation in His sufferings. The prayer is composed of words
proceeding from God Himself, from the Archangel Gabriel, and from the
Church; full of praise and of high desires; and it is renewed and continued
in an order at once fixed and various; its fruits are ever new and sweet.
8. Moreover,
we may well believe that the Queen of Heaven herself has granted an especial
efficacy to this mode of supplication, for it was by her command and counsel
that the devotion was begun and spread abroad by the holy Patriarch Dominic
as a most potent weapon against the enemies of the faith at an epoch not,
indeed, unlike our own, of great danger to our holy religion. The heresy
of the Albigenses had in effect, one while covertly, another while openly,
overrun many countries,
and this most vile off spring of the Manicheans, whose deadly errors it
reproduced, were the cause in stirring up against the Church the most
bitter animosity and a virulent persecution. There seemed to be no human
hope of opposing this fanatical and most pernicious sect when timely succour
came from on high through the instrument of Mary's Rosary. Thus under
the favour of the powerful Virgin, the glorious vanquisher of all heresies,
the forces of the wicked were destroyed and dispersed, and faith issued
forth unharmed and more shining than before. All manner of similar instances
are widely recorded, and both ancient and modern history furnish remarkable
proofs of nations saved from perils and winning benedictions therefrom.
There is another signal argument in favour of this devotion, inasmuch
as from the very moment of its institution it was immediately encouraged
and put into most frequent practice by all classes of society. In truth,
the piety of the Christian people honours, by many titles and in multiform
ways, the Divine Mother, who, alone most admirable among all creatures,
shines resplendent in unspeakable glory. But this title of the Rosary,
this mode of prayer which seems to contain, as it were, a final pledge
of affection, and to sum up in itself the honour due to Our Lady, has
always been highly cherished and widely used in private and in public,
in homes and in families, in the meetings of confraternities, at the dedication
of shrines, and in solemn processions; for there has seemed to be no better
means of conducting sacred solemnities, or of obtaining protection and
favours.
9. Nor
may we permit to pass unnoticed the especial Providence of God displayed
in this devotion; for through the lapse of time religious fervour has
sometimes seemed to diminish in certain nations, and even this pious method
of prayer has fallen into disuse; but piety and devotion have again flourished
and become vigorous in a most marvellous manner, when, either through
the grave situation of the commonwealth or through some pressing public
necessity, general recourse has been had-more to this than to even other
means of obtaining help-to the Rosary, whereby it has been restored to
its place of honour on the altars. But there is no need to seek for examples
of this power in a past age, since we have in the present a signal instance
of it. In these times-so troublous (as we have said before) for the Church,
and so heartrending
for ourselves-set as We are by the Divine will at the helm, it is still
given Us to note with admiration the great zeal and fervour with which
Mary's Rosary is honoured and recited in every place and nation of the
Catholic world. And this circumstance, which assuredly is to be attributed
to the Divine action and direction upon men, rather than to the wisdom
and efforts of individuals, strengthens and consoles Our heart, filling
Us with great hope for the ultimate and most glorious triumph of the Church
under the auspices of Mary.
10. But
there are some who, whilst they honestly agree with what We have said,
yet because their hopes-especially as regard the peace and tranquillity
of the Church-have not yet been fulfilled, nay, rather because troubles
seem to augment, have ceased to pray with diligence and fervour, in a
fit of discouragement. Let these look into themselves and labour that
the prayers they address to God may be made in a proper spirit, according
to the precept of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if there be such, let them
reflect how unworthy and how wrong it is to wish to assign to Almighty
God the time and the manner of giving His assistance, since He owes nothing
to us, and when He hearkens to our supplications and crowns our merits,
He only crowns His own innumerable benefits;(8) and when He complies least
with our wishes it is as a good father towards his children, having pity
on their childishness and consulting their advantage. But as regards the
prayers which we join to the suffrages of the heavenly citizens, and offer
humbly to God to obtain His mercy for the Church, they are always favourably
received and heard, and either obtain for the Church great and imperishable
benefits, or their influence is temporarily withheld for a time of greater
need. In truth, to these supplications is added an immense weight and
grace-the prayers and merits of Christ Our Lord, Who has Loved the Church
and has delivered Himself up for her to sanctify her . . . so that He
should be glorified in her.(9) He is her Sovereign Head, holy, innocent,
always living to make intercession for us, on whose prayers and supplication
we can always by divine authority rely. As for what concerns the exterior
and temporal prosperity of the Church, it is evident that she has to cope
with most malicious and powerful adversaries. Too often has she suffered
at their hands the abolition of her rights, the diminution and oppression
of her liberties,
scorn and affronts to her authority, and every conceivable outrage. And
if in their wickedness her enemies have not accomplished all the injury
they had resolved upon and striven to do, they nevertheless seem to go
on unchecked. But, despite them the Church, amidst all these conflicts,
will always stand out and increase in greatness and glory. Nor can human
reason rightly understand why evil, apparently so dominant, should yet
be so restricted as regards its results; whilst the Church, driven into
straits, comes forth glorious and triumphant. And she ever remains more
steadfast in virtue because she draws men to the acquisition of the ultimate
good. And since this is her mission, her prayers must have much power
to effect the end and purpose of God's providential and merciful designs
towards men. Thus, when men pray with and through the Church, they at
length obtain what Almighty God has designed from all eternity to bestow
upon mankind.(10) The subtlety of the human intelligence fails now to
grasp the high designs of Providence; but the time will come when, through
the goodness of God, causes and effects will be made clear, and the marvellous
power and utility of prayer will be shown forth. Then it will be seen
how many in the midst of a corrupt age have kept themselves pure and inviolate
from all concupiscence of the flesh and the spirit, working out their
sanctification in the fear of God;(11) how others, when exposed to the
danger of temptation, have without delay restrained themselves gaining
new strength for virtue from the peril itself; how others, having fallen,
have been seized with the ardent desire to be restored to the embraces
of a compassionate God. Therefore, with these reflections before them,
We beseech all again and again not to yield to the deceits of the old
enemy, nor for any cause whatsoever to cease from the duty of prayer.
Let their prayers be persevering, let them pray without intermission;
let their first care be to supplicate for the sovereign good-the eternal
salvation of the whole world, and the safety of the Church. Then they
may ask from God other benefits for the use and comfort of life, returning
thanks always, whether their desires are granted or refused, as to a most
indulgent father. Finally, may they converse with God with the greatest
piety and devotion according to the example of the Saints, and that of
our Most Holy Master and Redeemer, with great cries and tears.(12)
11. Our
fatherly solicitude urges Us to implore of God, the Giver of all good
gifts, not merely the spirit of prayer, but also that of holy penance
for all the sons of the Church. And whilst We make this most earnest supplication,
We exhort all and each one to the practice with equal fervour of both
these virtues combined. Thus prayer fortifies the soul, makes it strong
for noble endeavours, leads it up to divine things: penance enables us
to overcome ourselves, especially our bodies-most inveterate enemies of
reason and the evangelical law. And it is very clear that these virtues
unite well with each other, assist each other mutually, and have the same
object, namely, to detach man born for heaven from perishable objects,
and to raise him up to heavenly commerce with God. On the other hand,
the mind that is excited by passions and enervated by pleasure is insensible
to the delights of heavenly things, and makes cold and neglectful prayers
quite unworthy of being accepted by God. We have before Our eyes examples
of the penance of holy men whose prayers and supplications were consequently
most pleasing to God, and even obtained miracles. They governed and kept
assiduously in subjection their minds and hearts and wills. They accepted
with the greatest joy and humility the doctrines of Christ and the teachings
of His Church. Their unique desire was to advance in the science of God;
nor had their actions any other object than the increase of His glory.
They restrained most severely their passions, treated their bodies rudely
and harshly, abstaining from even permitted pleasures through love of
virtue. And therefore most deservedly could they have said with the Apostle
Paul, our conversation is in Heaven:(13) hence the potent efficacy of
their prayers in appeasing and in supplicating the Divine Majesty. It
is clear that not every one is obliged or able to attain to these heights;
nevertheless, each one should correct his life and morals in his own measure
in satisfaction to the Divine justice: for it is to those who have endured
voluntary sufferings in this life that the reward of virtue is vouchsafed.
Moreover, when in the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, all
the members are united and flourish, it results, according to St. Paul,
that the joy or pain of one member is shared by all the rest, so that
if one of the brethren in Christ is suffering in mind or body the others
come to his help and succour him as far as in them lies. The members are
solicitous in regard
of each other, and if one member suffer all the members suffer in sympathy,
and if one member rejoice all the others rejoice also. But you are the
body of Christ, members of one body. (14) But in this illustration of
charity, following the example of Christ, Who in the immensity of His
love gave up His life to redeem us from sin, paying Himself the penalties
incurred by others, in this is the great bond of perfection by which the
faithful are closely united with the heavenly citizens and with God. Above
all, acts of holy penance are so numerous and varied and extend over such
a wide range, that each one may exercise them frequently with a cheerful
and ready will without serious or painful effort.
12.
And now, venerable brethren, your remarkable and exalted piety towards
the Most Holy Mother of God, and your charity and solicitude for the Christian
flock, are full of abundant promise: Our heart is full of desire for those
wondrous fruits which, on many occasions, the devotion of Catholic people
to Mary has brought forth; already We enjoy them deeply and abundantly
in anticipation. At your exhortation and under your direction, therefore,
the faithful, especially during this ensuing month, will assemble around
the solemn altars of this august Queen and most benign Mother, and weave
and offer to her, like devoted children, the mystic garland so pleasing
to her of the Rosary. All the privileges and indulgences We have herein
before conceded are confirmed and ratified. (15)
13.
How grateful and magnificent a spectacle to see in the cities, and towns,
and villages, on land and sea-wherever the Catholic faith has penetrated-many
hundreds of thousands of pious people uniting their praises and prayers
with one voice and heart at every moment of the day, saluting Mary, invoking
Mary, hoping everything through Mary. Through her may all the faithful
strive to obtain from her Divine Son that the nations plunged in error
may return to the Christian teaching and precepts, in which is the foundation
of the public safety and the source Of peace and true happiness. Through
her may they
steadfastly endeavour for that most desirable of all blessings, the restoration
of the liberty of our Mother, the Church, and the tranquil possession
of her rights-rights which have no other object than the careful direction
of men's dearest interests, from the exercise of which individuals and
nations have never suffered injury, but have derived, in all time, numerous
and most precious benefits.
14.
And for you, venerable brethren, through the intercession of the Queen
of the Most Holy Rosary, We pray Almighty God to grant you heavenly gifts,
and greater and more abundant strength, and aid to accomplish the charge
of your pastoral office. As a pledge of which We most lovingly bestow
upon you and upon the clergy and people committed to your care, the Apostolic
Benediction.
Given at Rome, St. Peter's, the 22nd day of September, 1891, in the fourteenth
year of Our Pontificate.
REFERENCES:
1. Thes
5.17.
2. 2 Thes 3.2.
3. Acts 12.5.
4. Lk 22.44.
5. III. q. xxx,
a. 1.
6. Jn 1.17.
7. Ex sacr.
liturg.
8. S. August.
Epi CXCIV al 106 Sixtum, c. v., n. 19.
9. Eph 5.25-27.
10. S. Th. II-II,
q LXXXIII, a. 2, ex S. G. reg. M.
11. 2 Cor 7.1.
12. Heb 5.7.
13. Phil. 3.20.
14. 1 Cor 12.
25-27.
15. Cf. ep.
encycl. Supremi Aposcolatus officio (September 1, 1893); ep. encycl. Supreriore
anno (August 30, 1884); decree S. R. C. Inter plurimos (August 20, 1885);
ep. encycl. Quamquam pluries (August 15, 1889)
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