October Rosary Campaign

Pope Leo XIII (1878 -1903) wrote numerous encyclicals promoting the Rosary, and encouraged the practice of saying the Rosary every day in October. And since Our Lady requested during each of her six apparitions at Fatima that people should pray the Rosary for peace in the world, we know that the Rosary is a prayer she particularly favours.

And while it’s very important to emphasise the Rosary, it’s also necessary to promote other aspects of the Fatima message, such as the Five First Saturdays devotion, which includes Our Lady’s request for recitation of the Rosary and meditation on the mysteries.

And we also want to highlight more general Marian items and themes, such as the Brown Scapular, and personal consecration to the Blessed Virgin, as well as devotion to her Immaculate Heart.

To this end, we would also like to publicise our Rosary Pledge campaign, as a way of encouraging as many people as possible to pray the Rosary daily, in imitation of what happened in Austria in the 1940s and 50s.

The fact is that the Fatima message is over a century old and yet still far too few Catholics know much about it. Thus the emphasis we would like to place on the month of October, and particularly 13 October, as the Fatima anniversary date, and also because Our Lady linked the conversion of Russia and the promised era of peace with the message she was giving at Fatima.

So WAF England and Wales wants to play its part in this Marian renewal by promoting the message of Fatima, with, in this October Rosary campaign, an emphasis on the miracle of the sun, the Five First Saturdays devotion, and in particular the Rosary and October as the month of the Rosary.

If a Rosary campaign is something you can start, with your parish priest’s permission, in your parish this coming October, please let us know, and likewise, if you are able to start up the First Saturdays devotion in your parish.

But even if a parish-based Rosary campaign isn’t possible, there’s nothing stopping anyone organising the praying of the Rosary in their family, or with their friends or neighbours.

And please circulate information about this October Rosary Campaign as widely as possible!

To download an A4 poster advertising October as the month of the Rosary, please click here …

To Download an image  advertising October as the month of the Rosary, which can be shared on social media.

It would be a good follow up to having October as the month of the Rosary for parishes to begin the Five First Saturdays devotion (if that doesn’t already happen), the following month, November, carrying on through till next March, and even beyond that, so it becomes a regular feature of parish life, while also encouraging the saying of the Rosary in the parish and in people’s homes.