FOURTH DECADE

The surpassing merit of the holy Rosary as seen in the wonders

God has worked through it.

Thirty-first Rose

98 The saintly Blanche of Castille, Queen of France, was deeply

grieved because twelve years after her marriage she was still

childless. When St. Dominic went to see her he advised her to say

the Rosary every day to ask God for the grace of motherhood, and

she faithfully carried out his advice. In the year 1213 she gave

birth to her eldest child, who was called Philip. But when the

child died in infancy, the Queen sought our Lady's help more than

ever, and had a large number of rosaries given out to all members

of the court and to people in several towns in the Kingdom,

asking them to pray to God for a blessing which this time would

be complete. This was granted to her, for in 1215 St. Louis was

born, the prince who was to become the glory of France and the

model of Christian kings.

99 Alphonsus VIII, King of Aragon and Castille, had been

leading a disorderly life and had been punished by God in several

ways, and he was forced to take refuge in a town belonging to one

of his allies.

St. Dominic happened to be in this town on Christmas Day and

he preached on the Rosary as he usually did, and spoke of the

graces that we obtain through this devotion. He mentioned, among

other things, that those who said the Rosary devoutly would

overcome their enemies and regain all they had lost.

The King listened attentively and sent for St. Dominic to

ask whether what he had said about the Rosary was really true.

The Saint assured him that nothing was more true, and that if

only he would practice this devotion and join the Confraternity,

he would see for himself. The King resolved to say the Rosary

every day and persevered for a year in doing so. The very next

Christmas, our Lady appeared to him at the end of his Rosary and

said, "Alphonsus, you have served me for a year by saying my

Rosary devoutly every day, so I have come to reward you. I have

obtained the forgiveness of your sins from my Son. Here is a

rosary, which I present to you; wear it, and I promise you that

none of your enemies will be able to harm you."

Our Lady vanished, leaving the King overjoyed and greatly

encouraged; he immediately went in search of the Queen and told

her all about our Lady's gift and the promise that went with it.

He touched her eyes with this rosary, for she had lost her sight,

and she was cured.

Shortly afterwards the King rallied some troops and with the

help of his allies boldly attacked his enemies. He forced them

to give back the territory they had taken from him and make

reparation for his losses. They were completely routed, and he

became so successful in war that soldiers came from all sides to

fight under his standard, because it seemed that, whenever he

went into battle, the victory was sure to be his.

This is not surprising because he never went into battle

without first saying his Rosary on his knees. He made certain

that the whole of his court joined the Confraternity of the

Rosary and he saw to it that all his officials and servants were

devoted to it.

The Queen also joined the Confraternity, and they both

persevered in the service of Blessed Virgin and lived very holy

lives.

Thirty-second Rose

100 St. Dominic had a cousin named Don Perez or Pedro, who was

leading a highly immoral life. When he heard that his cousin was

preaching on the wonders of the Rosary and learned that several

people had been converted and had amended their lives by means

of it, he said, "I had given up all hope of being saved but now

I am beginning to take heart again. I really must hear this man

of God."

So one day he went to hear one of St. Dominic's sermons.

When the latter caught sight of him, he struck out against sin

more zealously than ever before, and from the depths of his heart

he besought God to enlighten his cousin and let him see what a

deplorable state his soul was in.

At first, Don Perez was somewhat alarmed, but he still did

not resolve to change his ways. He came once more to hear the

Saint preach and his cousin, realizing that a heart as hardened

as his could only be moved by something extraordinary, cried out

with a loud voice, "Lord Jesus, grant that this whole

congregation may see the state of the man who has just come into

your house."

Then everyone suddenly saw that Don Perez was completely

surrounded by a band of devils in the form of hideous beasts, who

were holding him in great iron chains. People fled in all

directions in abject terror, and Don Perez himself was even more

appalled when he saw how everyone shunned him. St. Dominic told

them all to stand still and said to his cousin, "Unhappy man that

you are, acknowledge the deplorable state you are in and throw

yourself at our Lady's feet. Take this rosary, say it with

devotion and with true sorrow for all your sins, and make a

resolution to amend your life."

Don Perez knelt down and said the Rosary; he then felt the

desire to make his confession, which he did with heartfelt

contrition. St. Dominic ordered him to say the Rosary every day;

he promised to do this and he entered his own name in the

register of the Confraternity. When he left the church his face

was no longer horrible to behold but shining like that of an

angel. Thereafter he persevered in devotion to the Rosary, led

a well-ordered life and died a happy death.

Thirty-third Rose

101 When St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary near Carcassone,

an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil.

The Saint exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of

people; it appears that over twelve thousand had come to hear him

speak. The devils who were in possession of this wretched man

were forced to answer St. Dominic's questions in spite of

themselves. They said:

1 that there were fifteen thousand of them in the body

of that poor man, because he had attacked the fifteen

mysteries of the Rosary;

2 that by the Rosary which he preached, he put fear and

horror into the depths of hell, and that he was the

man they hated most throughout the world because of

the souls he snatched from them by the devotion of the

Rosary.

3 They revealed several other things.

St. Dominic put his rosary round the neck of the possessed

man and asked them who, of all the saints in heaven, was the one

they feared most, who should therefore be the most loved and

revered by men.

At this they let out such unearthly screams that most of the

people fell to the ground, seized with fear. Then, using all

their cunning so as not to answer, the devils wept and wailed in

such a pitiful way that many of the people wept also, out of pure

natural pity. The devils, speaking through the mouth of the

Albigensian, pleaded in a heart-rending voice, "Dominic, Dominic,

have pity on us, we promise you we will never harm you.

"You have always had compassion for sinners and those in

distress; have pity on us, for we are in grievous straits. We are

suffering so much already, why do you delight in increasing our

pains? Can't you be satisfied with the pains we now endure? Have

mercy on us, have mercy on us!"

102 St. Dominic was not in the least moved by the pathetic words

of those wretched spirits, and told them he would not let them

alone until they had answered his question. Then they said they

would whisper the answer in such a way that only St. Dominic

would be able to hear. The latter firmly insisted upon their

answering clearly and audibly. Then the devils kept quiet and

would not say another word, completely disregarding St. Dominic's

orders.

So he knelt down and said this prayer to our Lady: "Oh, most

glorious Virgin Mary, I implore you by the power of the holy

Rosary command these enemies of the human race to answer my

question."

No sooner had he said this prayer than a glowing flame

leaped out of the ears, nostrils and mouth of the possessed man.

Everyone shook with fear, but the fire did not hurt anyone. Then

the devils cried, "Dominic, we beseech you, by the passion of

Jesus Christ and the merits of his holy Mother and of all the

saints, let us leave the body of this man without speaking

further; for the angels will answer your question whenever you

wish. After all, are we not liars - so why should you want to

believe us? Do not torment us any more, have pity on us."

"Woe to you, wretched spirits, who do not deserve to be

heard," St. Dominic said, and kneeling down he prayed to the

Blessed Virgin: "O most worthy Mother of Wisdom, I am praying for

the people assembled here, who have already learned how to say

the Angelic Salutation properly. I beg you for the salvation of

those here present, compel these adversaries of yours to proclaim

the whole truth here and now before the people."

St. Dominic had scarcely finished this prayer when he saw

the Blessed Virgin near at hand surrounded by a multitude of

angels. She struck the possessed man with a golden rod that she

held and said, "Answer my servant Dominic at once." (It must be

noted that the people neither saw nor heard our Lady, only St.

Dominic.)

103 Then the devils started screaming:

104 "Oh, you who are enemy, our downfall and our destruction,

why have you come from heaven to torture us so grievously? O

advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of

hell, you who are a most sure path to heaven, must we, in spite

of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone

who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Oh, woe to

us, princes of darkness.

"Then listen, you Christians. This Mother of Jesus is most

powerful in saving her servants from falling into hell. She is

like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and

subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our

snares, and makes our temptations useless and ineffective.

"We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has

really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us;

one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth

far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all

the saints. We fear her more than all the other saints in heaven

together, and we have no success with her faithful servants.

"Many Christians who call on her at the hour of death and

who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary standards

are saved by her intercession. And if that Marietta (it is thus

in their fury they called her) did not counter our plans and our

efforts, we should have overcome the Church and destroyed it long

before this, and caused all the Orders in the Church to fall into

error and infidelity.

"Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that

nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned,

because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition

for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy."

Then St. Dominic had all the people say the Rosary very

slowly and with great devotion, and a wonderful thing happened:

at each Hail Mary which he and the people said, a large number

of devils issued forth from the wretched man's body under the

guise of red-hot coals. When the devils had all been expelled and

the heretic completely delivered from them, our Lady, although

invisible, gave her blessing to the assembled company, and they

were filled with joy.

A large number of heretics were converted because of this

miracle and joined the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.

Thirty-fourth Rose

105 It is almost impossible to do credit sufficiently to the

victories that Count Simon de Montfort won against the

Albigensians under the patronage of Our Lady of the Rosary. They

are so famous that the world has never seen anything to match

them. One day he defeated ten thousand heretics with a force of

five hundred men; on another occasion he overcame three thousand

with only thirty men; finally, with eight hundred horsemen and

one thousand infantrymen he completely routed the army of the

King of Aragon, which was a hundred thousand strong, and this

with the loss on his side of only one horseman and eight

soldiers.

Our Lady also protected Alan de l'Anvallay, a Breton

knight, from great perils. He too was fighting for the faith

against the Albigensians. One day, when he found himself

surrounded by enemies on all sides, our Lady let fall a hundred

and fifty rocks upon his enemies and he was delivered from their

hands.

Another day, when his ship had foundered and was about to

sink, this good Mother caused a hundred and fifty small hills to

appear miraculously above the water and by means of them they

reached Brittany in safety. In thanksgiving to our Lady for the

miracles she had worked on his behalf in answer to his daily

Rosary, he built a monastery at Dinan for the religious of the

new Order of St. Dominic and, having become a religious himself,

he died a holy death at Orleans.

107 OthŠre, also a Breton soldier, from Vaucouleurs, often put

whole companies of heretics or robbers to flight, wearing his

rosary on his arm and on the hilt of his sword. Once when he had

beaten his enemies, they admitted that they had seen his sword

shining brightly, and another time had noticed a shield on his

arm on which our Lord, our Lady and the saints were depicted.

This shield made him invisible and gave him the strength to

attack well.

Another time he defeated twenty thousand heretics with only

ten companies without losing a single man. This so impressed the

general of the heretics' army that he sought out OthŠre, abjured

his heresy and declared that he had seen him surrounded by

flaming swords during the battle.

Thirty-fifth Rose

108 Blessed Alan relates that a certain Cardinal Pierre,

whose titular church was that of St. Mary-beyond-the-Tiber, was

a great friend of St. Dominic's and had learned from him to have

a great devotion to the holy Rosary. He grew to love it so much

that he never ceased singing its praises and encouraging everyone

he met to embrace it. Eventually he was sent as legate to the

Holy Land to the Christians who were fighting against the

Saracens. So successfully did he convince the Christian army of

the power of the Rosary that they all started saying it and

stormed heaven for help in a battle in which they knew they would

be pitifully outnumbered. And in fact, their three thousand

triumphed over an enemy of one hundred thousand.

As we have seen, the devils have an overwhelming fear of the

Rosary. St. Bernard says that the Angelic Salutation puts them

to flight and makes all hell tremble. Blessed Alan assures us

that he has seen several people delivered from Satan's bondage

after taking up the holy Rosary, even though they had previously

sold themselves to him, body and soul, by renouncing their

baptismal vows and their allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Thirty-sixth Rose

109 In 1578, a woman of Antwerp had given herself to the devil

and signed a contract with her own blood. Shortly afterwards she

was stricken with remorse and had an intense desire to make

amends for this terrible deed. So she sought out a kind and wise

confessor to find out how she could be set free from the power

of the devil.

She found a wise and holy priest, who advised her to go to

Fr. Henry, director of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, at

the Dominican Friary, to be enroled there and to make her

confession. Accordingly, she asked to see him but met, not Fr.

Henry, but the devil disguised as a friar. He reproved her

severely and said she could never hope to receive God's grace,

and there was no way of revoking what she had signed. This

grieved her greatly but she did not lose hope in God's mercy and

sought out Fr. Henry once more, only to find the devil a second

time, and to meet with a second rebuff. She came back a third

time and then at last, by divine providence, she found Fr. Henry

in person, the priest whom she had been looking for, and he

treated her with great kindness, urging her to throw herself on

the mercy of God and to make a good confession. He then received

her into the Confraternity and told her to say the Rosary

frequently.

One day, while Fr. Henry was celebrating Mass for her, our

Lady forced the devil to give her back the contract she had

signed. In this way she was delivered from the devil by the

authority of Mary and by devotion to the holy Rosary.

110 A nobleman who had several daughters placed one of them in

a lax monastery where the nuns were concerned only with vanity

and pleasures. Their confessor, on the other hand, was a zealous

priest with a great devotion to the holy Rosary. Wishing to guide

this nun into a better way of life, he ordered her to say the

Rosary every day in honour of the Blessed Virgin, while

meditating on the life, passion and glory of Jesus Christ.

She joyously undertook this devotion, and little by little

she grew to have a repugnance for the wayward habits of her

sisters in religion. She developed a love of silence and prayer,

in spite of the fact that the others despised and ridiculed her

and called her a fanatic.

It was at this time that a holy priest, who was making the

visitation of the convent, had a strange vision during his

meditation: he saw a nun in her room, rapt in prayer, kneeling

in front of a Lady of great beauty who was surrounded by angels.

The latter had flaming spears with which they repelled a crowd

of devils who wanted to come in. These evil spirits then fled to

the other nuns' rooms under the guise of vile animals.

By this vision the priest became aware of the lamentable

state of that monastery and was so upset that he thought he might

die of grief. He sent for the young religious and exhorted her

to persevere. As he pondered on the value of the Rosary, he

decided to try and reform the Sisters by means of it. He bought

a supply of beautiful rosaries and gave one to each nun,

imploring them to say it every day and promising them that, if

they would only say it faithfully, he would not try to force them

to alter their lives. Wonderful and strange though it may seem,

the nuns willingly accepted the rosaries and promised to say the

prayer on that condition. Little by little they began to give up

their empty and worldly pursuits, letting silence and

recollection come into their lives. In less than a year they all

asked that the monastery be reformed.

The Rosary worked more changes in their hearts than the

priest could have done by exhorting and commanding them.

Thirty-eighth Rose

111 A Spanish countess who had been taught the holy Rosary by

St. Dominic used to say it faithfully every day, with the result

that she was making marvellous progress in her spiritual life.

Since her only desire was to attain to perfection, she asked a

bishop who was a renowned preacher for some practices that would

help her to become perfect. The bishop told her that, before he

could give her any advice, she would have to let him know the

state of her soul and what her religious exercises were. She

answered that her most important exercise was the Rosary, which

she said every day, meditating on the Joyful, Sorrowful and

Glorious Mysteries, and that she had profited greatly by so

doing.

The Bishop was overjoyed to hear her explain what priceless

lessons the mysteries contain. "I have been a doctor of theology

for twenty years," he exclaimed, "and I have read many excellent

books on various devotional practices. But never before have I

come across one better than this or more conformed to the

Christian life. From now on I shall follow your example, and I

shall preach the Rosary."

He did so with such success that in a short while he saw his

diocese changed for the better. There was a notable decline in

immorality and worldliness of all kinds as well as in gambling.

There were several instances of people being brought back to the

faith, of sinners making restitution for their crimes, and of

others sincerely resolving to give up their lives of vice.

Religious fervour and Christian charity began to flourish. These

changes were all the more remarkable because this bishop had been

striving to reform his diocese for some time but with hardly any

results.

To inculcate the devotion of the Rosary all the more, the

bishop also wore a beautiful rosary at his side and always showed

it to his congregation when he preached. He used to say, "My dear

brethren, I am a doctor of theology, and of canon and civil law,

but I say to you, as your bishop, that I take more pride in

wearing the rosary of the Blessed Virgin than in any of my

episcopal regalia or academic robes."

Thirty-ninth Rose

112 A Danish priest used to love to tell how the very same

improvement that the Spanish bishop noticed in his diocese had

occurred in his own parish. He always told his story with great

joy of heart because it gave such glory to God.

"I had," he said, "preached as compellingly as I could,

touching on many aspects of our holy Faith, and using every

argument I could possibly think of to get people to amend their

way of life, but in vain. Finally, I decided to preach the holy

Rosary. I told my congregations how precious it was and taught

them how to say it, and I affirm that having taught them to

appreciate this devotion, I saw a manifest change within six

months.

"How true it is that this God-given prayer has a divine

power to touch our hearts and inspire them with a horror of sin

and a love of virtue!"

One day our Lady said to Blessed Alan, "Just as God chose

the Angelic Salutation to bring about the incarnation of his Word

and the redemption of mankind, so those who want to bring about

moral reforms and regenerate them in Jesus Christ must honour me

and greet me with the same salutation. I am the channel by which

God came to men, and so, next to Jesus Christ, it is through me

that men must obtain grace and virtue."

113 I, who write this, have learnt from my own experience that

the Rosary has the power to convert even the most hardened

hearts. I have known people who have gone to missions and heard

sermons on the most terrifying subjects without being in the

least moved; and yet, after they had, on my advice, started to

say the Rosary every day. they eventually became converted and

gave themselves completely to God.

When I have gone back to parishes where I had given

missions, I have seen tremendous differences between them; in

those parishes where the people had given up the Rosary, they had

generally fallen back into their sinful ways, whereas in places

where the Rosary was said faithfully I found the people were

persevering in the grace of God and advancing in virtue day by

day.

Fortieth Rose

114 Blessed Alan de la Roche, Fr. Jean Dumont, Fr. Thomas, the

chronicles of St. Dominic and other writers who have seen these

things with their own eyes speak of the marvellous conversions

that are brought about by this wonderful devotion. Great sinners,

both men and women, have been converted after twenty, thirty or

forty years of sin and unspeakable vice. I will not even relate

those which I have seen myself because I do not want to make this

book too long; there are several reasons why I would rather not

talk about them.

Dear reader, if you practice and preach this devotion, you

will learn more, by your own experience, than from spiritual

books, and you will have the happiness of being rewarded by our

Lady in accordance with the promises she made to St. Dominic, to

Blessed Alan de la Roche, and to those who encourage this

devotion which is so dear to her. For the Rosary teaches people

about the virtues of Jesus and Mary, and leads them to mental

prayer, to the imitation of Jesus Christ, to the frequentation

of the sacraments, the practice of genuine virtue and of all

kinds of good works. It also helps us to gain many wonderful

indulgences, which people are unaware of because those who preach

this devotion hardly ever mention them and content themselves

with giving a popular sermon on the Rosary which very often

produces admiration but not instruction.

115 Finally, I shall content myself with saying, in company with

Blessed Alan de la Roche, that the Rosary is a source and a

store-house of countless blessings.

1 Sinners obtain pardon;

2 Those who thirst are refreshed;

3 Those who are fettered are set free;

4 Those who weep find joy;

5 Those who are tempted find peace;

6 Those in need find help;

7 Religious are reformed;

8 The ignorant are instructed;

9 The living learn to resist spiritual decline;

10 The dead have their pains eased by suffrages.

Our Lady once said to Blessed Alan, "I want those who are

devoted to my Rosary to have my Son's grace and blessing during

their lifetime, at death and after their death. I want them to

be freed from all slavery so that they will be like kings, with

crowns on their heads, sceptres in their hands and to reign in

eternal glory. Amen.