The month of October is especially dedicated to the Holy Rosary. This tradition originates from Pope St Pius V who wanted to dedicate a feast to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary following the victory at the Battle of Lepanto against the Turkish fleet on the 7th October 1571.
Conscious of the great power of the Holy Rosary, Pope Francis has invited all the faithful to recite the Holy Rosary, that “sweet chain that links heaven and earth”, during the month of October as reported in the Press Release from the Vatican.
“The Holy Father has decided to invite all the faithful, of all the world, to pray the Holy Rosary every day, during the entire Marian month of October, and thus to join in communion and in penitence, as the people of God, in asking the Holy Mother of God and Saint Michael Archangel to protect the Church from the devil, who always seeks to separate us from God and from each other.
The Russian mystics and the great saints of all the traditions advised, in moments of spiritual turbulence, to shelter beneath the mantle of the Holy Mother of God pronouncing the invocation “Sub Tuum Praesidium”.
The invocation “Sub Tuum Praesidium” is recited as follows:
| Sub tuum praesídium confúgimus, sancta Dei Génetrix; nostras deprecatiónes ne despícias in necessitátibus, sed a perículis cunctis líbera nos semper, Virgo gloriósa et benedícta. |
We fly to thy protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin. |
With this request for intercession the Holy Father asks the faithful of all the world to pray that the Holy Mother of God place the Church beneath her protective mantle: to preserve her from the attacks by the devil, the great accuser, and at the same time to make her more aware of the faults, the errors and the abuses committed in the present and in the past, and committed to combating without any hesitation, so that evil may not prevail.
The Holy Father has also asked that the recitation of the Holy Rosary during the month of October conclude with the prayer written by Leo XIII:
 San Michele Arcangelo, Vaticano |
Saint Michael Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen |