Rosary devotion helped keep the faith alive in China

In the Chinese province of Kiang-Nan, according to a missionary, devotion to the rosary is as old as the faith, and it is perhaps to the rosary that the faith owes its preservation. In the parishes, the faithful proudly wear the rosary on a buttonhole. In return, Mary bestows upon them significant marks of her protection. Here's just one example:

A poor woman, in a state of despair due to a difficult marriage, confided to a missionary that she was strongly tempted to commit suicide. The latter made every effort to dissuade her, and after exhorting her to put all her trust in Mary, he gave her a rosary, advising her never to part with it. A month later, she returned and said to her confessor: "Father, have pity on me! If I am still alive and not in the fires of hell, it's not because of me. I tried everything to kill myself, but incredibly, I wasn't able to do it. I swallowed rusty copper, and repeatedly drank huge doses of poison, and each time, all I felt was pain in my guts accompanied by terrible vomiting. Many times I set out to plunge into the river, and always an invisible hand held me back at the water's edge: my feet refused to leave the ground, no matter how hard I tried to jump. I felt inside my soul that I was helplessly doomed to damnation." 

The missionary learned that the unfortunate woman, faithful to his advice, never once parted from her rosary, despite the evil one's temptations to do so. "Go and humble yourself at the feet of the good Mother!" he said.

A sincere conversion was the fruit of this special protection .

Excerpted from Annales des Missions de la Chine

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