''Octobri mense'' (''At the coming of] the Month of October'') is an

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...

on the

Rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

, also known as the

Rosary Pope The Mariology of the popes is the theological study of the influence that the popes have had on the development, formulation and transformation of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines and devotions relating to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The devel ...

. It was issued on 22 September 1891 in

Saint Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...

in Rome.

Background

''Octobri mense'' is the fifth of twelve encyclicals written by Leo XIII on the Rosary. Starting in 1883, all but two were issued in September in anticipation of October, the month dedicated to the Rosary. The subject of ''Octobri mense'' was the power of prayer and the efficacy of the rosary. "It is indeed a cause of great sorrow that so many should be deterred and led astray by error and enmity to God; that so many should be indifferent to all forms of religion, and should finally become estranged from faith; that so many Catholics should be such in name only, and should pay to religion no honour or worship." Invoking

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

under the title Helper of Christians, Leo urges the faithful to have recourse to her. "The Eternal Son of God ..did not accomplish His design without adding there the free consent of the elect Mother, who represented in some sort all human kind, according to the illustrious and just opinion of St.

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

, who says that the Annunciation was effected with the consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity."

St. Dominic Saint Dominic ( es, Santo Domingo; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilian Catholic priest, mystic, the founder of the Dominican Order and is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientis ...

’s devotion to the rosary is noted: "the devotion was begun and spread abroad by the holy Patriarch Dominic as a most potent weapon against the enemies of the faith at an epoch not, indeed, unlike our own, of great danger to our holy religion. The heresy of the Albigenses had ...overrun many countries, and this most vile off spring of the Manicheans ..There seemed to be no human hope of opposing this fanatical and most pernicious sect when timely succor came from on high through the instrument of Mary's Rosary. Thus under the favor of the powerful Virgin, the glorious vanquisher of all heresies" In every September for the next seven years following the writing of ''Octobri Mense'' in September 1891, Pope Leo XIII dedicated the month of October to the Rosary through the authorship of an encyclical. These encyclicals continued the use of the Rosary by Leo as a rallying point against the evils in 1892, 1893 and 1894.

Notes

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External links

''Octobri mense'' at the Vatican website

Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII 1891 documents 1891 in Christianity September 1891 events

Background

See also

Notes

External links