particularly in these days of trial, to second our wishes, and to give evidence of their loyalty to this Apostolic Chair.

While, therefore, we offer up fervent prayers that the faithful of your illustrious diocese may learn to love God more and more, and that under your episcopal care and guidance their merits may increase with their numbers, we at the same time beg of God from our heart to pour down on you an abundant increase of His grace, that He may strengthen with a power from on high your co-laborers and your people, and that He may grant to all who sow in blessings that in blessings also they may reap.

In conclusion, may our apostolic benediction, which we most affectionately bestow on you, beloved son, and on the clergy and people over whom you are placed, be a pledge of Divine grace, as it is a token of our especial favor.

Given at St. Peter's, Rome, the fifth day of April, 1883, in the sixth year of our Pontificate.

LEO PP. XIII.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE ENCYCLICAL ABOUT THE ROSARY.

N order that the reader may be able to judge for himself in what regard the Holy Father held the devotion of the holy rosary, his letter recommending that piety is here subjoined as a separate chapter; and as the devotion to the rosary is a favorite one in this country, where it has steadily increased of late. years, and is still increasing, this document will be found highly interesting:

"The duty of the Supreme Apostolate which has been intrusted to us, and the especially difficult condition of the times now present, warn us every day with greater instance, and, as it were, constrain us with increasing pressure, to keep watch with all the more care over the integrity of the Church, as the calamities from which she suffers are multiplied.

"For this reason, as far as lies within our power, at the same time that we direct all our efforts to the defence, by all possible means, of the rights of the Church, and to the discovery and repulse of the dangers which threaten and assail her, do we also use all diligence in imploring the assistance of the Divine succor, with the aid of which only can our labors and our care bear fruit.

"To that end we consider that no means could be more effi

cacious and more certain than that we should gain the favor, by the religious practice of the veneration due to her, of the sublime Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, sovereign depositary of all peace, and dispenser of all grace, who has been placed by her Divine Son at the summit of glory and of power, in order that, with her protection, she might aid mankind, on its way of weariness and peril, towards the City of Eternity.

"Thus, at the approach of the solemn anniversaries which remind us of the many and weighty benefits conferred upon the Christian people by the devotion of the holy rosary, we will, that, in the present year, this devotion should be the object of a most particular attention throughout the Catholic world, in honor of the Sovereign Virgin, so that, by her intercession, we may obtain from her Divine Son a happy mitigation, or an ending, of evils. We have considered, venerable brothers, that, by making known to you our designs in these letters, we shall enlist your authority and your zeal in the work of stimulating the piety of the people to make our wish their own.

"It has always been the principal and most solemn care of Catholics, to take refuge under the ægis of Mary, and to appeal to her motherly goodness in troubled times and its conditions of peril. This proves that the Catholic Church has always placed, and with reason, her hope and her confidence in the Mother of God. And, indeed, the Virgin, exempted from the original stain, chosen to be the Mother of God, and thereby associated with Him in the work of the salvation of human kind, enjoys so great favor and power with her Son, that never has human nature or angelic nature been able to obtain its like. And since it is sweet to her, above all things, to grant her succor and her assistance to those who request them, we may not doubt that she will be willing, and, as it were, eager, to accept the prayers addressed to her by the Universal Church.

"This great and trusting piety towards the august Queen of Heaven has never shone so brightly as when the violence of error, or the intolerable corruption of morals, or the attacks of powerful foes,

Ancient

have seemed to place in peril the Church Militant of God. and modern history, and the most authentic annals of the Church, recall the memory of public and private supplications to the Mother of God, as well as of the succor which she has granted, and of the public tranquillity obtained in many circumstances by her holy intervention. Hence the titles of Helper, of Benefactress, of Consoler of Christians, of Queen of Armies, of Dispenser of Victory, by which she has been hailed. Among all these titles, especially remarkable and solemn is that which comes to her from the rosary, and by which have been commemorated for eternity the signal benefits owed to her by the Christian name.

"There is not one of you, venerable brothers, who is ignorant of the mourning and the misery brought upon the Holy Church of God, towards the end of the twelfth century, by the Albigensian heretics, who, born of the sect of the latest Manichæans, covered the South of France, and all the other countries of the Latin world, with their pernicious errors. Carrying abroad the terror of their arms, they spread everywhere their dominion by murder and in the midst of ruins. Against this scourge, God raised up in His mercy the illustrious father and founder of the Dominican Order. This hero, great by the integrity of his doctrine, by the example of his virtues, and by his apostolic labors, advanced against the Catholic Church, animated with a spirit from above, not with arms and violence, but with the most absolute faith in that devotion of the rosary which he was the first to publish, and which his sons have carried to the four corners of the world. In fact, he foresaw, by Divine grace, that this devotion, like a mighty engine of war, would put the enemy to flight, and would confound their audacity and their mad impiety. The result justified his faith. Thanks to this new manner of praying, -accepted and afterwards put into regular practice by the institution of the Order of the Holy Father Dominic, - piety, good faith, concord, began to take root again, and the plans and projects of the heretics fell into ruins. Thanks to it, also, many strayed sheep were brought

back into the right way, and the fury of the impious was reined in by Catholic armies summoned to oppose force by force.

"The efficaciousness and the power of this prayer were also proved in the sixteenth century, when the innumerable hosts of the Turks were on the point of imposing the yoke of superstition and barbarism upon almost the whole of Europe. In that day the Sovereign Pontiff St. Pius V., after having awakened in the hearts of all Christian princes the ardor of common defence, sought above all and by all means to render propitious and helpful to the Christian name the all-powerful Mother of God, by imploring her aid in the prayers of the rosary. This noble example, displayed at that time to earth and heaven, rallied all spirits and persuaded all hearts. And the faithful ones of Christ, resolved to shed their blood and to offer their lives for the saving of religion and of their country, marched, unheeding any comparison of numbers, upon the enemy, massed not far from the Gulf of Corinth; while the non-combatants - pious army of suppliants-called upon Mary, implored Mary, repeating the formula of the rosary, and beseeching victory for those who were at the battle. The Sovereign Lady, thus entreated, was not deaf; for, in the naval action in which the combatants engaged near the Echinades, the Christian fleet, undergoing no great losses, carried a signal victory, and annihilated the forces of the

enemy.

"Therefore it was that the same holy Sovereign Pontiff, in gratitude for so immense a benefit, decreed that a festival in honor of Mary Victorious should consecrate forever the fame of this memorable fight. Gregory XIII. sanctified this feast, giving it the name of the Holy Rosary.

"Consequently, since it is clearly known that this formula of prayer is particularly pleasing to the Holy Virgin, and that it is especially appropriate for the defence of the Church and of the Christian people, and for the gaining of every kind of public and private benefit, it is not surprising that several others of our prede