The month of October is dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary. But today, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, we remember the victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Pope Pius V urged all Catholics to pray the Marian prayer, imploring the Blessed Mother to protect vastly outnumbered Christian naval forces amid a battle between Muslim — a fleet of ships of the Ottoman Empire — and Christian navies. The Pope urged Catholics from neighboring villages to come together to pray the Rosary for victory. 

And Mary came to their aid. 

At the hour of victory, the Pope — who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican — is said to have gotten up from a meeting, walked over to an open window, exclaimed, “The Christian fleet is victorious!” and shed tears of joy and thanksgiving to God.

The beloved Marian prayer is close to our hearts in many ways, especially on the one-year anniversary of the terrible massacre in Israel by Hamas and the ongoing conflict. Prayed to protect soldiers in battle or mouthed in silence behind locked closet doors by the once-captive Immaculée Ilibigiza, everyone has a story of how they first came to know the weight and feel of each bead. 

On this day, when we contemplate the power of the Rosary and the safety we find under Mary’s mantle, the Register asked several Catholic bishops and other prominent voices to share their own stories of how they learned the Rosary and what makes this prayer so powerful in their own lives. Some even share their favorite mystery. 

1. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco

When I was a little child, we had rosaries around the house. Before I learned exactly what it was and how to pray it, I used to put it around my fingers when I held my hands together in prayer because I knew it was something sacred and having to do with prayer. When I was a little bit older, when family members or other loved ones died, the vigil always consisted of praying the Rosary. So that was really my first exposure to praying Rosary.

When I made my first Holy Communion, I received two rosaries at the same time. My godparents gave me a missal with a pocket in the cover that contained a rosary, and the nuns instructing us at the parish also gave rosaries to the first communicants. The Rosary in the missal was black, and the one I received from the nun who taught me First Communion was a multicolored rosary. So I had a variation of rosaries.

I started praying the Rosary ever since then. I remember specifically in bed, if I couldn’t fall asleep, I would pray the Rosary and would eventually fall asleep before I got to the end of it. When I woke up, I would find it under the pillow or somewhere in the sheets. I didn’t know at the time, but I later learned that an angel finishes the Rosary for you. That was my first exposure to the Rosary.

As I grew more in my faith, I learned more about the Rosary and how to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. I learned how the Rosary is a biblical prayer because the mysteries are contained in the Gospels, and most of the words of the prayers come straight from the Gospels. The 150 Hail Marys in the traditional Rosary of the five Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries correspond to the 150 Psalms. Thus, as monks and clerics prayed the 150 Psalms in the psalter of the Divine Office, the Rosary became a sort of Divine Office for the lay faithful, to pray in harmony with that. That is how I learned about the Rosary, and I have cherished it ever since up to this day.

My favorite mystery? That is kind of like asking me my favorite spaghetti sauce or asking a parent who is their favorite child! Everything in our religion revolves around the Incarnation, that God became one of us. So I would say it would be the mystery of the Annunciation when Mary gave her “Yes” to God’s plan for his Son taking on flesh and coming into the world because it is the fulfillment of God’s plan. This meditation helps us to understand how unique God’s plan really is. It is God coming to man so that we can go to God. And it provides us with a reflection on Mary’s model of discipleship in saying “Yes” to God even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties.

2. Mary FioRito, the Cardinal Francis George Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center

Like many women, when I hit my mid-20s, I had anxiety about my future. Religious life had crossed my mind, but how was I to be sure it was for me? What about marriage? I had dated a fair bit, but had not met anyone special. During that time, I became friends with a Dominican nun named Sister Natalie. She gave me a gift, a little booklet entitled The 54-Rosary Novena. “I said this right before I entered the Dominicans,” she explained. “I asked Our Lady to help me know for sure this was what God wanted from me. I never missed one day — and I got the assurance I needed.”

Thinking, “It couldn’t hurt,” I began in earnest. Then I missed a day, so I started over again. And quite out of the blue, I was asked out to dinner by a young man at my office — on a Wednesday morning, for a Saturday evening date. Having been cautioned by a friend that I should not be “too available” on such short notice, I replied I wasn’t free, but the following weekend was open. What I didn’t realize then was that the following Saturday was Day 54 of my 54-day Rosary novena. That young man and I have now been married for 26 years.

3. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas

I cannot remember not praying the Rosary as a family. My mother belonged to the Legion of Mary her entire adult life. Praying the Rosary together as a family every evening was an essential component of the culture of our family. I treasure the rosaries that I have received from Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.

4. Carrie Gress, fellow, Ethics & Public Policy Center

I’ve been praying a daily Rosary most of my adult life, trying in earnest to follow Our Lady’s lead. Over the years, different mysteries have really come into focus at different points of my life. The Annunciation in particular always held a special place in my heart; perhaps because it is the first, the beginning, that grace breaking-into-the-world moment that gets the Christian story moving. 

The significance of the Rosary became even clearer to me when I wrote The Marian Option. I discovered that, historically, there are small groups called the “creative minorities” that have rebuilt and renewed civilizations over the millennia. For the past 1,000 years, these minorities have largely consisted of those devoted to Our Lady. She is the one, through the humble prayers we recite in her honor, who transforms the darkness into light. In these dark times, it isn't hard to see her working through those devoted to the Rosary to renew, refresh, rebuild the Church, first at home and then beyond.

5. Teresa Tomeo, EWTN Radio host of The Catholic Connection 

My awareness of the meaning and the power of the Rosary was made very clear to me by a discussion I heard on EWTN. This was many years ago, when my husband and I were making our way back to the Church. We were being challenged by former Catholics and non-Catholics who were convinced we were involved in idol worship by praying the Rosary. We wondered how we could explain the prayers of the Rosary in a way they might understand. Then, one day, I happened to hear a priest who was speaking at a conference carried on the network discussing the Rosary. He said that the Rosary was a meditation on the Gospels and, more specifically, the life of Christ. Every mystery, he explained, highlights an incident of major importance during our Lord’s time on earth; and, of course, the two main prayers of the Rosary are also directly from Scripture, the Hail Mary and the Our Father. Wow! It’s not that we didn’t realize we were praying and meditating on our Lord’s life, death and resurrection — but the way the priest explained this provided a very intense moment of clarity and assurance for us and even helped affirm again our decision to return to the Church.

Since our Protestant brothers and sisters had a great love of Scripture, my husband and I were able to show them that even Mary’s title, “Blessed Mother,” is right out of the Bible. Mary, in the Rosary, is leading us more closely to Christ as we meditate on the different mysteries. 

I don’t recall any of those friends running to a Catholic store to purchase a rosary, but it did get them to stop and think about its meaning. More importantly, we believe that exchange with those outside the Church, and being in the right place and time to hear the explanation on EWTN, was for me and my husband what we needed to help us appreciate the gifts of our faith more deeply, including the Rosary.

6. Dominican Father Dominic Legge of the Thomistic Institute

I first remember praying the Rosary with my great-grandmother, who would take care of me for a few hours after kindergarten. She was a convert to the faith as a young woman, drawn by the beauty of the Catholic Mass. I can still remember resting my head on her shoulder while praying — and I know how important her faith was for her life, and in helping her through the sorrows of losing her son shortly after World War II and her husband shortly after I was born. After she died, I was given her rosary and her daily hand missal, which I still treasure as a link with the love for the Rosary and the Mass that was passed on to me as a child.

7. Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at The Catholic Association and EWTN Radio host

“Who’s that?” I asked my friend, passing by an unwatched television.

“Mother Angelica,” she replied. "She’s a Catholic nun."

“What is she saying?”

“The Rosary. It’s a Catholic prayer.”

I was at a sleepover at a Protestant friend’s house. I was intrigued, and so we plopped down on the couch and finished with her. Her wry, sparkling eyes were smiling at us through the screen. I’m pretty sure she was looking dead at me.

I was 12.

My friend, at whose house I slept over regularly, wasn’t allowed to watch television, except apparently Mother Angelica. Her dad, though a full-throated Protestant, liked her.

How could you not?

And so I said my first Rosary with Mother Angelica. About 10 years later, I became a Catholic. Fifteen years later, I say the Rosary every Sunday evening with my husband and five kids. And I still see those wry eyes smiling right at me. 

8. Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia 

“I learned the Rosary at home. We would often pray as a family and we also prayed at school. My grandmother would pray the Rosary as often as three times a day. I saw how much the Rosary inspired reliance on Mary's intercession, so I knew it was a special way to pray.”

9. Chris Stefanick, Host and Creator of Real Life Catholic 

My mom just started praying it with me on my way to school and karate class as a high school kid. It honestly was part of what made my conversion (which happened on a retreat) 'stick.' It was a simple on-ramp into a life of prayer.

Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for us!