A Rosary crusade in the United States

Robert Renaud, a parishioner of St James Catholic Church, decided to honor Our Lady by establishing the Family Rosary Crusade 16 years ago…

This year’s event took place on May 18^th in Carthage, N.Y., with Mass at 5:15 pm, and the evening continued with seven hours of praying the Rosary in honor of Mary’s “Seven Sorrows.”

Mr. Renaud sent emails around the world to enlist members to the crusade… Many travel from afar to join the Rosary Crusade. Since 2006, Michael and Theresa Schweigert have travelled about 150 miles from Guilderland, near Albany, to participate.

“The Rosary Crusade for us is a pilgrimage,” wrote Mrs. Schweigert in an email. “The three-hour trip to Carthage is a chance to put aside all our mundane activities and concerns and focus on our personal relationship with God. It’s an opportunity to connect with old friends and make new ones who share our love for the faith, and most of all to spend some quality time with the Lord.”

In addition to the spiritual rewards of attending the devotion, those who attend for at least three hours — denoting the time Christ suffered on the cross — are given a print of a painting especially created for the event. Mr. Renaud, a Carthage Central High School art instructor and an artist, supplies the original artwork. One of the pieces created for a former Rosary Crusade, which was based on the Native American Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is part of the Vatican Collection in Rome.

This year’s painting “With the Queen of Hearts, There’s Hope” depicts a young woman playing the guitar on the street. More information about the Rosary Crusade and past paintings can be found on the St James website.

Adapted from Watertown Daily Times