One of the most universal and popular devotion in the Catholic Church is that of the Holy Rosary. It is to be found in all the countries of the world from the frozen stretches of the Yukon to the burning sands of the Sahara and out into the Islands in the Indian Sea. It is popular with all classes, poor and rich, illiterate and learned; the untutored peasant in the fields, as well as the learned theologians,  find in the rosary the manna for their souls.

Tradition ascribes the popular use of the rosary to St Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. When the Albigensain heresy was spreading through the south of France and the north of Italy in the year 1200, Dominic was commissioned by the Pope to preach against it. His efforts were unavailing. He then besought the aid of Mary. Appearing to Dominic, Mary gave him the rosary bidding him to use it as a weapon against the prevailing heresy. The devotion spread rapidly and in a short time had effected the conversion of more that a hundred thousand heretics.

Later on, when dire calamities loomed up before Christendom, recourse was again had to the rosary. To its efficacy the Christians chiefly attributed the deliverance of Europe from the Turks by the well-nigh miraculous victories at Lepanto (1571), Vienna (1683) and Belgrade. It was in thanksgiving for these victories that the feast of the Holy Rosary was established on the first Sunday of October and the whole month dedicated to the Holy Rosary. That the Blessed Virgin was highly please with this prayer was clearly evidenced by the fact that when she appeared at Lourdes to St. Bernadette, she held in her hand the rosary.

Pope Leo XII issued no fewer than twelve encyclicals and letters apostolic encouraging this devotion. At it averted the evils threatening the Church in the days of St. Dominic, and later on when the crescent of the Turks seeking to replace the cross of Christ loomed up menacingly against the Christian horizon, so also has it the power to avert the evils threatening the Church, society and the individual soul in this day and age.

The complete rosary consists of fifteen decades. But ordinarily only the rosary of five decades is said at one time. there are three sets of mysteries upon which one meditates while saying the rosary: the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. The joyful mysteries commemorate the chief events in the lives of Jesus and Mary before the Passion. The sorrowful commemorate the chief events of the Passion, while the glorious recall the principal happenings after the Passion: they thus serve as an epitome of the lives of Jesus and Mary. The joyful mysteries are customarily commemorated on Monday, Thursday and the Sundays during Advent, the sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday and the Sundays during Lent, the glorious on Wednesday, Saturday and the remaining Sundays of the year.

The five joyful mysteries include all the events mentioned in the gospels concerning the birth and the childhood of Christ. The first is the Annunciation. This brings before our minds the scene in the humble home of the Blessed Virgin in Nazareth, when the angel Gabriel brought to her the wonderful message from on high: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women…. Behold thou shalt conceive in they womb, and thou shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord god shall give unto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know no man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.