The Holy Rosary, used by Roman Catholics around the world, is an important tool for meditating on the significant lives of Jesus Christ and His Mother the Virgin Mary. Some people have professed that while they are praying the rosary, they have experienced a great enlightenment as if they are traveling in a path to God with Mary and Jesus.
Pope Leo XIII (March 2 1810 – July 20 1903) was one of the people who played a great part in the development and the propagation of rosary devotion. Because of his efforts he was widely known as the Rosary Pope.
He was born as Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci in carpineto Romano, a place near Rome. He was the 257th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and the oldest pope to reign at age 93. Well known for his teachings for intellectual thoughts, he also published his encyclical entitled Rerum Novarum.
Pope Leo XIII was entitled as the Rosary Pope entirely because of his eleven encyclicals which promulgates Marian devotion among the Catholics. While meditating the rosary, he believed that Mary has a very significant role in saving the humanity as the Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix.
In one of his rosary encyclicals, he acknowledged Mary as a divine intervener or a mediatrix. Among the encyclicals which he described the Virgin Mary as such are Octobri Mense, Dei Matris, Jucunda Semper and Augustissimae Virginis. These encyclicals are centered on the concept that asking God for help through the Blessed Virgin Mary is more effective and graceful.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, a very popular theologian, has a great influence on Pope Leo XIII’s views of the Virgin Mary as a Co-Redemptrix. He believed that Mary assumed the divine role of a helper of redemption during the mystery of the Assumption. As Jesus was carried in the womb and given birth by Mary, all Christians are Mary’s children.
During the 50th year of his priesthood, Pope Leo XIII beatified Loius de Montfort who is known for his books proposing the five different methods in praying the holy rosary.
Leo XIII actively promoted the significance of the rosary as a direct path to God. Salvation comes from God, to Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to humanity. In praying the rosary, we participate in the significant events in the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
During his papacy, Leo XIII utilized his full papal authority to support the Marain dogma. In 1879, he crowned and venerated the Our Lady of La Salette. During the opening of the Lady of Lourdes Church, he issued an Apostolic Letter entitled Parte humanae generi which appreciates and motivates pilgrims to Lourdes and other Marian apparition shrines.
In the papal history, Leo is noted as one if the greatest and intelligent popes. His style is crisp, short but crystal clear.
His recorded eleven encyclicals on the holy rosary are as follows:
1.) Supremi Apostolatus Officio (The Supreme Apostolic Office On Devotion to the rosary)
2.) Superiore Anno (Last Year On The Recitation of the Rosary)
3.) Vi E Ben Noto (On The Rosary and Public Life)
4.) Octobri Mense (The Month Of October on The Rosary)
5.) Magnae Dei Matris (Of the Great Mother Of God On the Rosary)
6.) Laetitiae Sanctae (Of Holy Priase Commending Devotion to the Rosary)
7.) Jucunda Semper Expectatione (On The Rosary)
8.) Adjiutrcem (Adjutrix On The Rosary)
9.) Fidentem Piumque Animum (On The Rosary)
10.) Augustissimae Virginis Mariae (Of the Most August Virgin Mary On The Confraternity of The Holy Rosary)
11.) Diuturni Temporis
