hen we say the Rosary, we are in the best of company, for great men of all ages have been ardently devoted to this prayer. Among the popes who prayed it daily are St. Pius V, Pius VII, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, Pius XII, John the XXUI and our own Holy Father, Pope John Paul I1 continues the beautiful example of his predecessors.

mong the princes of this world who were especially devoted to the Holy Rosary were Charles V of Spain and Alphonsus V of Portugal. Among theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great; among musicians, Haydn and Gluck; among field marshals, count Tilly, Prince Eugene, and Radetzky, French Commanding General Marshal Fochs WW1; and among other great men were St. Thomas More, Windthorst, Ketteler, Seipel, and Dollfuss.

his is only a tiny fraction of the countless numbers of important men and women of all the centuries since the flourishing of Christendom who have had great and daily devotion to the Holy Rosary. Great saints have called their Rosary beads a ladder leading to heaven. The Rosary can be said when we walk, drive, ride on the bus, wait in the doctor’s office, and while we watch over the sick and the dying. We say it whenever we have a minute to think of Jesus and Mary.

hrough seven hundred years of history since St. Dominic began to preach the Rosary, this prayer has been a gauge of the strength of Faith. When Faith weakened, the rosary was being neglected; but with each period of religious revival it came again into its own. Let us learn to pray the Rosary devoutly meditating deeply on its mysteries, so that our faith may increase, our hope grows strong, and our love for Jesus and Mary becomes more ardent. Let us live with the Rosary and die with it. Then the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary will attend to our future in heaven with Her.