APPENDIX 2
Connected in Love Through the Holy Rosary: the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary
P
erhaps the most famous saintly promoter of the Holy Rosary is St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort who was a secular priest and Dominican tertiary who laboured to renew the Faith in 18th century France. In 1712 he obtained permission from the Master of the Dominican Order to preach the Rosary and to enrol members in the Rosary Confraternity. Around this time, St Louis then researched the history and miracles of the Rosary, and he wrote his two books, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin and The Secret of the Rosary. Because of the turmoil of the French Revolution and the
resulting anti-Catholicism, both books remained unpublished and were hidden away, literally buried in a field and thus protected by providence from destruction, until they were discovered almost by chance in 1842 and published in 1843. St Louis de Montfort sums up the great value of the Rosary as Mary’s gift to us. He says: “The Holy Rosary teaches people about the virtues of Jesus and Mary, and leads them to mental prayer and to imitate Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It teaches them to approach the Sacraments often, genuinely to strive after Christian virtues and to
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