Rosary Miracles

Motivation

Many know that miracles have happened by praying the rosary, but few realise how many and how impressive these are. This post aims to make this more known and so to encourage the praying of the rosary, also outside of the rosary month. Who after all is not convinced that the current world could use some extra supernatural help?

And did you know that by praying the rosary with others, a full indulgence can be received (under the usual conditions of confession, communion and praying for the intentions of the Pope)?!

History

According to the papally confirmed tradition, St Dominic received the rosary from Mary herself during an apparition to him in 1214. Yes, prayer chains of alternate Our-Fathers and Hail-Marys already existed before; also afterwards changes to the rosary were made (St Petrus Canisius added the second half of the Hail-Mary, in the 20th century the addition of the Fatima prayer at the end of every decade became popular and in 2002 St John Paul II added the luminous mysteries); yet, the essence of the rosary does come from St Dominic. Meditating a ‘mystery’ of the gospel during every decade, namely, gave it much power. The Dominicans, therefore, have always been the strongest promotors of the rosary. In 1569 it was also a dominican Pope who officially confirmed the rosary-devotion in writing with a bull.

Notable miracles

•In 1539 the Turks besieged Kotor in Montenegro with 30,000 men. The blessed Ozana of Kotor, a third-order Dominican, called the people to pray the rosary helping them to resist the siege against all expectation.

•In 1565 the Ottomans besieged Malta with 40,000 men. The hospitaller knights (now the order of Malta) only had 6,000 men to defend the island. Grandmaster De Valette had a special rosary-sword made for him and under his leadership the Maltese were able to resist the attack of the superior numbers and could even kill 30,000 Ottomans. De Valette made a thanksgiving pilgrimage to the Marian-shrine of Vittoriosa and laid his sword and helmet at the feet of Our Lady. 

•On october 7th 1571 a christian alliance won a great victory at Lepanto over the supreme turkish fleet that consisted of 300 vessels with 70,000 to 100,000 men. 30,000 Turks were killed and the majority of turkish vessels was lost versus only 7,000 killed christians and 12 of their vessels lost. 15,000 turkish slaves were freed as well. The decisive factors in the naval battle were mist and the wind that all of a sudden turned to the advantage of the christians. The commander in chief Don Juan had a copy of the image of Guadalupe in his quarters and the Pope had called all christians to a rosary campaign. The Pope received a vision of the victory while it occurred, and as thanksgiving he instituted the feast of OL of victory on october 7, later renamed to OL of the rosary.

•In 1586 the devout Maria Ramos returned a completely deteriorated rosary-image from 1562 to its chapel in Chiquinquira (Colombia). Then on december 26 it suddenly fully recovered all by itself.

•Before 1623 the spanish mystic Maria of Agrada had instructed the Jumano indians in the USA in the faith and had distributed rosaries by means of bilocation. Six years later the Franciscans arrived and were able to confirm the bilocation of the “lady in blue.”

•In 1646 the Filipinos had gone through quite some disasters (earth quakes, vulcanic eruptions, floods) when in total 18 modern dutch warships arrived to conquer their country. They only had two old spanish galleons to defend themselves. Six months and five sea battles later, the Calvinists had to return empty-handed while at the filipino side only 18 dead had to be mourned. The local bishop officially declared the victory as a miracle after a thorough investigation. The Dominicans had widely spread the devotion to the rosary over the Philippines and so the soldiers went on pilgrimage to the rosary-shrine of La Naval as thanksgiving.

•During his conquest in the 17th century in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell said about the Irish: "they hold up certain chains of beads and never surrender." This is perhaps not a miracle, but does indicate that the rosary gave the Irish much hope and strength.

•In 1683 Vienna was besieged by an army of 150,000 men (mainly muslims, but also protestants). Because of a detour via Czestochowa, King Jan Sobieski of Poland arrived only just in time. Supported by extensive rosary-prayers, he was able to end the siege that had lasted for two months within a few hours with less than 80,000 men. This is considered the turning point in the islamic threat of Europe.

•On august 5th 1716 (the feast of OL of snow) a christian army of 91,000 men achieved a decisive victory in Peterwardein (Hungary) over the Ottoman army consisting of 160,000 men and of which no less than 110,000 died. As thanksgiving the Pope placed the feast of OL of the rosary on the universal calendar.

•In october of the same year the Greek island Corfu was besieged in vain by 33,000 Turks versus only 8,000 defendants. This victory was ascribed to rosary prayers as well.

•In 1754 the deaf-mute daughter Rosa of a certain Maria from Las Lajas (Colombia) was suddenly fully healed when Mary with child appeared to her. Shortly afterwards Rosa died and her mother took her to the same rocky place where before she had been healed and, behold, the child came back to life. Moreover, an image remained of Mary giving the rosary to St Dominic with St Francis watching. Inexplicable is that it is present (still) in the rock up to a few centimeter deep.

•In 1917 Mary appeared six times to three shepherd children in Fatima (Portugal). She had announced that on october 13th a miracle would take place and so a crowd of about 70 thousand people had gathered. The miracle of the sun was visible up to 18 km distance, even atheists have officially reported it and the earth, soaked by the huge amount of rain, had suddenly dried. Mary appeared in Fatima under the title of OL of the rosary.

•In 1945 eight german Jesuits in Hiroshima & Marytown in Nagasaki survived the atomic bombs on Japan. St Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941 AD) had founded Marytown, as ordered by heaven, behind the hill that would protect them against the explosion. The Jesuits lived a mere one km from Ground Zero in Hiroshima without any natural protection. Up to three km distance practically everything was destroyed. Both communities were strongly religious and had given a central place to the rosary.

•On may 13th 1955 the Russians suddenly left without any violence from economically and strategically important Austria. Father Petrus Pavlicek had organised public rosary-crusades to this aim for eight years. In the end no less than half a million people participated in them.

•In 1964 Brazil was spared, without noticeable violence, from the communism that president Goulart wanted to impose. The cardinal of Rio de Janeiro called everyone to pray the rosary. Many groups of women answered his call. In Sao Paolo up to 600,000 of them took to the streets for a rosary-march, in this way contributing to the forced departure of Goulart.

•Bilocation, levitation, clairvoyance, prophecy and the understanding of strange languages are some of the many gifts of St Padre Pio (Italy, 1887-1968 AD), a simple capuchin father. Many books have been written about him and he prayed the rosary continually.

•In 1986 the philippine dictator Marcos was peacefully deposed of when tens of thousands of people armed with only rosaries formed a human buffer against the tanks. Many soldiers later testified that when they were about to run over the people, a beautiful Lady appeared that ordered them, as Queen of the islands, to stop.

•On august 5th 2010 (OL of snow) 33 miners in Chile where trapped at a depth of 700 m. On august 22th (Queenship of Mary) the surprising message came that all were still alive. Each of the miners then received a rosary that was personally blessed by the Pope. On october 13th (the day of the miracle of the sun in Fatima) all 33 were saved. This was months earlier than expected.

Conclusion

This post only gives a selection and short presentation of some impressive rosary miracles. For more information on these, and on the rosary itself, please consult the well researched and excellently written book with praise from many bishops: Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon by Donald H. Calloway, MIC from 2016.