Queen of the Most Holy Rosary

On the first Sunday of October in 1571, it is believed that Heaven rewarded the faith of those who had recourse to the Rosary to stop the advance of the Turks, and the naval victory of Lepanto gained by Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet corresponded wonderfully to the processions made in Rome on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made upon that day, and in 1573, Pope Gregory XIII instituted this feast in all churches which possessed an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary. In 1671 the observance of this feast was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later, Clement XI, after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of Our Lady of the Snows), in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. Leo XIII has added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary". On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of Our Lady. This has been called the "Portiuncula" of the Rosary.