OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY: A feast instituted by Saint Pius V to commemorate and give thanks to the Virgin Mary for her assistance in the victory against the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Notable is his 1569 document, in which he saw the Rosary as a harbinger of that victory. Clement XI extended the feast to the entire Church in 1716. Leo XIII elevated its liturgical rank and published nine encyclicals on the Rosary. Saint Pius X definitively established October 7 as the date for its celebration.
