"Our Lady of the Rosary" Poster Contest

On October 7, the Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The apparition of Mary that was granted to St. Dominic became known as Our Lady of the Rosary. Devotion to the Rosary increased tremendously in the 1500s after the Battle of Lepanto. On October 7, 1571, the naval fleet of the Holy League confronted the fleet of the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the Ionian Sea. Although outnumbered, the soldiers of the Holy League prayed the Rosary earnestly, at the request of Pope St. Pius V. They won a surprising, even miraculous, victory at Lepanto, which the Holy Father attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a result of the Battle of Lepanto, Christianity was saved in the west and would continue to thrive. After this miraculous event, devotion to the Rosary increased and began to take greater pride of place among the Church’s devotions. While initially referred to as “Our Lady of Victory,” in 1960 Pope St. John XXIII changed the name of the feast to “Our Lady of the Rosary.”