Saints and popes have defended the spiritual sword of Mary

Saint John Paul II once made this remark: “It would be impossible to name all the many Saints who discovered in the Rosary a genuine path to growth in holiness.”

Many people are familiar with the more well-known champions of the Rosary such as St Dominic, St Louis de Montfort, and St Pio of Pietrelcina, but there are so many more! For example, Blessed Alan de le Roche is responsible for reviving the Rosary after the Black Death killed 1/3 of the population of Europe; in the 19^th century, Our Lady called St Anthony Mary Claret a “ new St Dominic”; Pope Leo XIII wrote 11 encyclicals on the Rosary; the Servant of God Joseph Kentenich referred to the Rosary as a spiritual machine gun and a grace-filled atomic bomb; St Maximilian Kolbe specifically called the Rosary a sword; the Servant of God Patrick Peyton gathered millions of people together to pray the Rosary; and Venerable Fulton J. Sheen created a special kind of Rosary known as the World Mission Rosary. And this is only a sampling of those saints and popes who championed the spiritual sword of Mary!

Adapted from an article by Father Donald Calloway, MIC

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