Fourth Decade

The excellence of the holy Rosary in the wonders God has worked in its favor.

Thirty-First Rose

98. St. Dominic went to visit Queen Blanche of France, who, after twelve years of marriage, had had no children and was greatly afflicted. He counseled her to say the Rosary every day to obtain this grace from heaven. She did so, and in the year 1213 she gave birth to her firstborn, who was named Philippe. But death took him in his cradle, and the devout queen had recourse to the Blessed Virgin more than ever. She had great numbers of Rosaries distributed throughout the court and in several cities of the kingdom, so that God might grant her his full blessing. And so it came to pass: in the year 1215 St. Louis was born, the glory of France and the model of Christian kings.

99. Alphonsus VIII, King of Aragon and Castile, was punished by God in many ways because of his sins, and was forced to take refuge in a city belonging to one of his allies. St. Dominic, being in the same city on Christmas Day, preached the Rosary as was his custom, and the graces one obtains from God through this devotion. He said, among other things, that those who recited it devoutly would obtain victory over their enemies and recover all they had lost. The king noted these words well, sent for St. Dominic, and asked whether what he had preached about the holy Rosary was true. The saint replied that there was no reason to doubt it and promised him that if he would practice this devotion and enroll in the confraternity, he would see the results. The king resolved to recite the Rosary every day, and continued for a year. On the following Christmas Day, having recited his Rosary, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and said: "Alphonsus, you have served me devoutly for a year through my Rosary; I have come to reward you. Know that I have obtained from my Son the pardon of all your sins. Here is a rosary I give you; carry it on your person, and none of your enemies will ever be able to harm you." She disappeared, leaving the king greatly consoled. He returned, holding the rosary in his hand, and approaching the queen, he joyfully told her of the favor he had just received from the Blessed Virgin. He touched her eyes with the rosary, and she recovered the sight she had lost. Some time later, the king, having gathered some troops with the help of his allies, boldly attacked his enemies, forced them to restore his lands, repaired the damage they had caused, drove them out completely, and became so successful in war that soldiers came from all directions to fight under his banner, because victory seemed to follow him everywhere. This is not surprising, for he never went into battle without first reciting his Rosary on his knees. He had his entire court received into the confraternity of the holy Rosary and obliged his officers and servants to be devoted to it. The queen also enrolled, and both persevered in the service of the Blessed Virgin and lived in great piety.

Thirty-Second Rose

100. St. Dominic had a cousin named Dom Perez, or Pedro, who led a very dissolute life. Having heard that the saint was preaching the wonders of the holy Rosary and that many were being converted and changing their lives by this means, he said: "I had lost all hope of my salvation, but I am beginning to take courage; I must hear this man of God." He came one day to St. Dominic's sermon. When the saint saw him, he redoubled his fervor in thundering against vice, and he prayed to God in his heart to open the eyes of his cousin to see the miserable state of his soul. Dom Perez was at first somewhat frightened, but did not resolve to convert. He returned another time to the sermon, and the saint, seeing that this hardened heart would not be converted without some extraordinary event, cried aloud: "Lord Jesus, show everyone in this audience the state of the man who has just entered your house." Then all the people saw Dom Perez surrounded by a troop of devils in the form of horrible beasts, holding him bound with chains of iron. Everyone fled in terror, this way and that, and he himself was even more horrified to see himself the object of everyone's revulsion. St. Dominic made them all stop and said to the nobleman: "Acknowledge, wretched man, the deplorable state you are in. Throw yourself at the feet of the Blessed Virgin." He sent him a rosary: "Take this rosary, recite it with devotion and repentance for your sins, and resolve to change your life." He knelt down and recited the Rosary. He felt inspired to go to confession, which he did with great contrition. The saint ordered him to say the holy Rosary every day. He promised to do so and enrolled himself in the confraternity. His face, which had previously frightened everyone, appeared, as he left the church, as radiant as that of an angel. He persevered in the devotion of the Rosary, led a very virtuous life, and died a happy death.

Thirty-Third Rose

101. St. Dominic, preaching the holy Rosary near Carcassonne, was brought an Albigensian heretic possessed by the devil. The saint exorcised him in the presence of a great multitude; it is said there were more than twelve thousand people gathered to hear him. The devils who possessed this wretched man, being compelled against their will to answer the saint's questions, said: first, that there were fifteen thousand of them in the body of this wretched man, because he had attacked the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary; second, that by the Rosary he was preaching, he spread terror and dread throughout all of hell, and that he was the man in the world they hated most, because of the souls he snatched from them by the devotion of the Rosary; third, they revealed several other details. St. Dominic, having thrown his rosary about the neck of the possessed man, asked them which of all the saints in heaven they feared the most and who ought to be the most loved and honored by men. At this question, they uttered such dreadful cries that most of the audience, seized with fright, fell to the ground. Then these evil spirits, in order not to answer, wept and lamented in so pitiful and touching a manner that several of the bystanders wept themselves, out of natural compassion. Through the mouth of the possessed man they said in a mournful voice: "Dominic, Dominic, have pity on us! We promise we will never harm you. You who have such pity on sinners and on the wretched, have pity on us who are wretched. Alas, we suffer enough! Why do you take pleasure in increasing our pains? Be content with the pains we endure. Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!"

102. The saint, unmoved by the tender words of these wretched spirits, told them he would not cease to torment them until they had answered his question. The devils told him they would answer, but secretly, in his ear, and not before the whole assembly. The saint insisted and commanded them to speak and answer aloud. The devils would say no more, despite all his commands. He knelt down and made this prayer to the Blessed Virgin: "O excellentissima Virgo Maria, per virtutem psalterii et rosarii tui, compelle hos humani generis hostes questioni meae satisfacere." — "O most holy Virgin Mary, by the power of the holy Rosary, command these enemies of the human race to answer my question." After this prayer, a burning flame shot from the ears, nostrils, and mouth of the possessed man, making everyone tremble, but harming no one. Then the devils cried out: "Dominic, we beg you, by the passion of Jesus Christ and by the merits of his holy Mother and of all the saints, permit us to leave this body without saying anything more; for the angels will reveal it to you whenever you wish. Are we not liars? Why do you want to believe us? Do not torment us any more; have pity on us!" "Wretches that you are, unworthy of being heard!" said St. Dominic. Kneeling once more, he prayed to the Blessed Virgin: "O Mater sapientiae dignissima et de cujus salutatione quomodo illa fieri debeat jam edoctus est populus; pro salute populi circumstantis rogo: Coge hosce tuos adversarios, ut plenam et sinceram veritatem palam hic profiteantur." He had scarcely finished his prayer when he saw the Blessed Virgin near him, surrounded by a great multitude of angels. With a golden rod she held in her hand, she struck the possessed man, saying: "Answer my servant Dominic as he has asked." It should be noted that the people could neither hear nor see the Blessed Virgin; only St. Dominic could.

103. Then the devils began to cry out: "O inimica nostra, o nostra damnatrix, o nostra inimica, o nostra domnatrix, o confusio nostra, quare de coelo descendisti, ut nos hic ita torqueres? Per te quae infernum evacuas et pro peccatoribus tanquam potens advocata exoras; o Via coeli certissima et securissima, cogimur sine mora et intermissione ulla, nobis quamvis invitis, et contra nitentibus, totam rei proferre veritatem. Nunc declarandum nobis est simulque publicandum ipsum medium et modus quo ipsimet confundamur, unde vae et maledictio in aeternum nostris tenebrarum principibus. Audite igitur vos, christiani. Haec Christi Mater potentissima est in preservandis suis servis quominus precipites ruant in baratrum nostrum inferni. Illa est quae dissipat et enervat, ut sol, tenebras omnium machinarum et astutiarum nostrarum, detegit omnes fallacias nostras et ad nihilum redegit omnes nostras tentationes. Coactique fatemur neminem nobiscum damnari qui ejus sancto cultui et pio obsequio devotus perseverat. Unicum ipsius suspirum, ab ipsa et per ipsam sanctissimae Trinitati oblatum, superat et excedit omnium sanctorum preces, atque pium et sanctum eorum votum et desiderium, magisque eum formidamus quam omnes paradisi sanctos; nec contra fideles ejus famulos quidquam praevalere possumus. Notum sit etiam vobis plurimos christianos in hora mortis ipsam invocantes contra nostra jura salvari, et nisi Marietta illa obstitisset nostrosque conatus repressisset, a longo jam tempore totam Ecclesiam exterminassemus, nam saepissime universos Ecclesiae status et ordines a fide deficere fecissemus. Imo planius et plenius vi et necessitate compulsi, adhuc vobis dicimus, nullum in exercitio Rosarii sive psalterii ejus perseverantem aeternos suis veram impetrat contritionem qua fit ut peccata sua confiteantur, et eorum indulgentiam a Deo consequantur."

104. That is to say: "O our enemy, O our ruin, O our confusion! Why have you come down from heaven on purpose to torment us so cruelly? Must we, despite ourselves, O advocate of sinners who rescues them from hell, O most sure path to paradise — must we be forced to speak the whole truth? Must we confess before all the world what will be the cause of our confusion and ruin? Woe to us! Woe to our princes of darkness! Listen then, Christians. This Mother of Jesus Christ is all-powerful to prevent her servants from falling into hell. She it is who, like the sun, scatters the darkness of all our plots, breaks our snares, and renders all our temptations useless and of no effect. We are forced to confess that no one who perseveres in her service is damned with us. A single sigh she offers to the Holy Trinity surpasses all the prayers, vows, and desires of all the saints. We fear her more than all the blessed put together, and we can do nothing against her faithful servants. Many Christians even who invoke her at the hour of death, and who according to our ordinary rights should be damned, are saved by her intercession. If that Marietta" — this is what their rage led them to call her — "had not opposed our designs and efforts, we would long ago have overthrown and destroyed the Church and caused all her orders to fall into error and unbelief. We further declare, under the constraint imposed upon us, that no one who perseveres in saying the Rosary is damned; for she obtains for her devoted servants true contrition for their sins, through which they confess them and obtain pardon and forgiveness from God." Then St. Dominic had the whole assembly recite the Rosary very slowly and devoutly, and at each Hail Mary that the saint and the people recited — an astonishing thing — a great multitude of demons left the body of the wretched man in the form of burning coals. When all the devils had departed and the heretic was completely delivered, the Blessed Virgin gave her blessing, though invisibly, to the whole assembly, who felt a very palpable joy. This miracle caused a great number of heretics to convert and enroll in the confraternity of the holy Rosary.

Thirty-Fourth Rose

105. Who could recount the victories that Simon, Count of Montfort, won over the Albigensians under the protection of Our Lady of the Rosary? They are so famous that the world has never seen the like. He once defeated ten thousand heretics with five hundred men; another time, with thirty, he defeated three thousand; and then, with eight hundred horsemen and a thousand foot soldiers, he cut to pieces the army of the King of Aragon, composed of a hundred thousand men, without losing more than one horseman and eight soldiers of his own.

106. From what dangers did the Blessed Virgin deliver Alan de Lanvallay, a Breton knight who fought for the faith against the Albigensians! One day, when he was surrounded on all sides by his enemies, the Blessed Virgin hurled a hundred and fifty stones against them and delivered him from their hands. Another time, when his ship had been wrecked and was about to sink, this good Mother caused a hundred and fifty little hills to appear, on which he reached Brittany safely. In memory of the miracles the Blessed Virgin had worked in his favor on account of the Rosary he recited every day, he built a convent at Dinan to house the religious of the new Order of St. Dominic; and having himself become a religious, he died a holy death at Orleans.

107. Othere, likewise a Breton soldier from Vaucouleurs, often put whole companies of heretics and brigands to flight, carrying his rosary on his arm and on the guard of his sword. His enemies, after being defeated, confessed to him that they had seen his sword blazing with light, and once a shield on his arm on which Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints were depicted, making him invincible and giving him the strength to charge mightily. Once, with ten companies, he defeated twenty thousand heretics without losing a single man of his own, which so moved the general of the heretical army that he came to Othere, abjured his heresy, and declared that he had seen him covered with armor of fire in the combat.

Thirty-Fifth Rose

108. Blessed Alan relates that a cardinal named Peter, of the title of Santa Maria in Trastevere, instructed by St. Dominic, his intimate friend, in the devotion of the holy Rosary, became so attached to it that he became its great champion and recommended it to everyone. The cardinal was sent as legate to the Holy Land to the Christians on crusade against the Saracens. He so effectively persuaded the Christian army of the power of the Rosary that, having all embraced it to implore the help of heaven in battle, they triumphed over a hundred thousand with only three thousand men. The devils, as we have seen, feared the Rosary infinitely. St. Bernard says the Angelic Salutation puts them to flight and makes hell tremble. Blessed Alan assures us that he saw several persons who had given themselves to the devil body and soul, renouncing their baptism and Jesus Christ, and who were afterwards delivered from his tyranny by taking up the devotion of the holy Rosary.

Thirty-Sixth Rose

109. In the year 1578, a woman of Antwerp had given herself to the devil by a contract signed with her own blood. Some time later she felt a keen regret and a great desire to undo the wrong she had done. She sought a prudent and charitable confessor to learn by what means she might be freed from the power of the devil. She found a wise and devout priest who advised her to go to Father Henry, the director of the confraternity of the holy Rosary at the convent of St. Dominic, to enroll and make her confession. She asked for the Father, and instead found the devil in the guise of a religious, who reproved her severely and told her she had no more grace to hope for from God, and no way to revoke what she had signed. This greatly distressed her, but she did not lose all hope in the mercy of God. She went back again to find the Father, and once more found the devil, who rebuffed her as before. She returned a third time, and by God's permission found Father Henry, whom she had been seeking. He received her charitably, exhorted her to trust in the goodness of God and make a good confession. He received her into the confraternity and ordered her to recite the Rosary often. One day, during a Mass the Father was celebrating for her, the Blessed Virgin compelled the devil to return the signed contract. And so she was delivered by the authority of Mary and the devotion of the holy Rosary.

Thirty-Seventh Rose

110. A nobleman who had several children placed one of his daughters in a convent that had completely lost its discipline, where the religious cared for nothing but vanity and pleasure. Her confessor, a fervent man devoted to the holy Rosary, wishing above all to guide this young religious into the practices of a better life, ordered her to recite the Rosary every day in honor of the Blessed Virgin, meditating on the life, passion, and glory of Jesus Christ. She took great pleasure in this devotion. Little by little she developed a distaste for the disorders of her sisters; she began to love silence and prayer, despite the contempt and mockery of the others, who treated her as a prig. Around that time, a holy abbot, having come to visit this convent, had a strange vision in his prayer: he seemed to see a religious in her room at prayer, before a great lady of admirable beauty, accompanied by a troop of angels, who with fiery darts drove off a multitude of devils trying to enter. These evil spirits then fled to the rooms of the other religious in the form of filthy animals, to excite them to sin, and many of them gave them entrance. The abbot recognized, by this vision, the wretched state of the convent and nearly died of sorrow. He sent for the young religious and encouraged her to persevere. Reflecting on the excellence of the Rosary, he formed the plan of reforming these religious by this devotion. He bought beautiful rosaries and gave them to all the religious, persuading them to say the Rosary every day and promising that, if they would agree, he would never force them to undertake a reform. They accepted the rosaries with pleasure and promised to say them, on this condition. Remarkably, little by little they gave up their vanities, embraced silence and recollection, and in less than a year they all asked for the reform. The Rosary accomplished more in their hearts than the abbot could ever have gained by his exhortations and his authority.

Thirty-Eighth Rose

111. A countess of Spain, having been instructed in the devotion of the holy Rosary by St. Dominic, said it every day with marvelous progress in virtue. Since she aspired to nothing but perfection, she one day asked a prelate and famous preacher for some practices of perfection. He told her she must first reveal to him the state of her soul and her exercises of piety. She told him that her principal exercise was the Rosary, which she recited every day, meditating on the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, with great spiritual profit to her soul. The bishop, delighted to hear her expound the rare instructions contained in the mysteries, said to her: "I have been a doctor of theology for twenty years; I have read many excellent books of devotion; but I have never found one more fruitful or more in keeping with Christianity. I want to imitate you; I will preach the Rosary." He did so with such happy success that in a short time he saw a very great change of morals in his diocese — many conversions, restitutions, and reconciliations. Debauchery, gambling, and luxury ceased; peace in families, devotion, and charity began to flourish. A change all the more admirable because this bishop had labored much to reform his diocese with very little fruit. To better promote the devotion of the Rosary, he carried a beautiful one at his side and showed it to his audiences. He would say: "My brothers, know that the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin is so excellent that I, your bishop, a doctor of theology and of both laws, glory in always carrying it as the most illustrious mark of my episcopate and my doctorate."

Thirty-Ninth Rose

112. A parish priest in Denmark often recounted, to the greater glory of God and with great joy of soul, that he had seen a similar fruit from the devotion of the Rosary in his parish as that bishop had seen in his diocese. "I had," he said, "preached all the most urgent and fruitful subjects, without any result; I saw no amendment in my parish. At last I resolved to preach the holy Rosary; I explained its excellence and how to practice it, and I declare that after making my people appreciate this devotion, I saw a visible change in six months. So true is it that this divine prayer has a wholly divine power to touch hearts and inspire them with a horror of sin and a love of virtue." The Blessed Virgin once said to Blessed Alan: "Just as God chose the Angelic Salutation for the Incarnation of his Word and the redemption of men, so those who wish to reform the morals of peoples and regenerate them in Jesus Christ must honor and greet me by the same salutation. I am," she added, "the way by which God came to men, and after Jesus Christ they must obtain grace and the virtues through me."

113. For my own part, I, the author of this work, have learned from my own experience the power of this prayer to convert the most hardened hearts. I have encountered hearts upon which all the most terrible truths preached in a mission had made no impression, yet which, having taken up my counsel to recite the Rosary every day, were converted and gave themselves entirely to God. I have seen an infinite difference in the morals of the people of the parishes where I had given missions, because those who had abandoned the practice of the chaplet and the Rosary had fallen back into their sins, while those who had kept it up had maintained themselves in the grace of God and were daily increasing in virtue.

Fortieth Rose

114. Blessed Alan de la Roche, Father John Dumont, Father Thomas, the chronicles of St. Dominic, and other authors who were often eyewitnesses, relate a great many miraculous conversions of sinners who, for twenty, thirty, and forty years had been sunk in the worst disorders, and whom nothing had been able to convert — yet who were converted by this marvelous devotion. I shall not relate them, for fear of excessive length. I do not even wish to relate those I have seen with my own eyes; I pass them over in silence for several reasons. Dear reader, by your own experience, if you practice and preach this devotion, you will learn more than in any book, and you will happily experience the fulfillment of the promises the Blessed Virgin made to St. Dominic, to Blessed Alan de la Roche, and to those who promote this devotion so pleasing to her — a devotion that instructs the people in the virtues of her Son and her own, that leads them to mental prayer, to the imitation of Jesus Christ, to the frequentation of the sacraments, to the solid practice of virtue and of every kind of good work, and to the gaining of so many beautiful indulgences of which the people are ignorant because the preachers of this devotion almost never speak of them, contenting themselves with giving a sermon on the Rosary, after the fashion of the day, which more often produces admiration than instruction.

115. In closing, I will say with Blessed Alan de la Roche that the Rosary is a fountain and storehouse of every kind of blessing: Peccatoribus praestat poenitentiam; Sitientibus stillat satietatem; Alligatis adducit absolutionem; Lugentibus largitur laetitiam; Tentatis tradit tranquillitatem; Egenis expellit egestatem; Religiosis reddit reformationem; Ignorantibus inducit intelligentiam; Vivis vincit vastitatem; Mortuis mittit misericordiam per modum suffragii — that is: first, it gives sinners penance; second, it gives the thirsty their fill; third, it brings the bound their release; fourth, it bestows joy upon the sorrowful; fifth, it gives the tempted tranquility; sixth, it relieves the destitute of their poverty; seventh, it brings reform to the religious; eighth, it gives the ignorant understanding; ninth, it conquers the emptiness of the living; tenth, it sends mercy to the dead by way of suffrage. "Volo," the Blessed Virgin once said to Blessed Alan, "ut psaltae mei in vita et in morte, et post mortem habeant benedictionem, gratiae plenitudinem ac libertatem, immunesque sint a caecitate, obduratione, inopia ac servitute" — "I desire that the devotees of my Rosary have the grace and blessing of my Son during their life, at their death, and after their death; that they be freed from every kind of bondage; that they be kings, with the crown upon their heads, the scepter in their hands, and eternal glory." So be it.