Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

At the Battle of Lepanto which took place on October 7th in 1571, a coalition of Catholic maritime states: The Holy League, which was formed by Pope Pius the V to counter the Ottoman Empire (Islam/Turks), was poorly outnumbered. Nevertheless the Holy League miraculously defeated the Turks. Pope Pius had requested that all of Europe pray the Rosary for protection and intervention.

October 7 was established as The Feast of Our Lady of Victory by Pope Pius the V, to thank our Lady for this miraculous outcome. The name was later changed in 1573 to The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary by Pope Gregory the XIII. Special Masses and processions take place worldwide to commemorate this special day.

Saint Faustina Kowalska

October 5th is the Feast of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. She was born in 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland to a devout peasant family, and possessed a great faith in Jesus from the age of 7. In 1925 St. Faustina had a vision of the Suffering Christ, after which she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, in Krakow. Jesus chose St. Faustina to help Him spread the message of His trust and mercy. He appeared to her in 1937 as the King of Divine Mercy, and she worked with an artist to have this image painted. Faustina’s confessor had her record her experiences with Jesus, creating the renowned publication: Divine Mercy in My Soul, The Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska.

St. Faustina was blessed with many graces including visions of heaven, hell and purgatory, and was able to bi-locate and to read souls. She had an extraordinary union with Jesus and as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, this courageous Saint accepted immense physical agony during her final years of consumption tuberculosis which took her life at the age of 33 in 1938.