Our Lady Instructs St. Dominic to Preach the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort

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Our Lady Instructs St. Dominic to Preach the Rosary
by St. Louis de Montfort

The miraculous way in which the devotion to the holy Rosary was established is analogous to the way in which God gave His Law to the world on Mount Sinai, and it obviously proves its value and importance.

Our Lady gives St. Dominic the Rosary

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Blessed Virgin as well as by his own experience, St. Dominic preached the Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons, in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low, before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.

The Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation for every sermon and his little tryst with Our Lady immediately after preaching.

One day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St. John the Evangelist. He was in a little chapel behind the high altar prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when Our Lady appeared to him and said:

“Dominic, even though what you have planned to say may be very good, I am bringing you a much better sermon.” St. Dominic took in his hands the book Our Lady proffered, read the sermon carefully and, when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks to her.

When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day, made no mention of St. John other than to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. The congregation was made up of theologians and other eminent people, who were used to hearing unusual and polished discourses.

But St. Dominic told them that it was not his desire to give them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he would speak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with His forcefulness.

The pulpit of Notre Dame of Paris

So he began preaching the Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as he would to a group of children, and used the very simple illustrations which were in the book given him by Our Lady. …

Carthagena, the great scholar, quoting Blessed Alan de la Roche in De Dignitate Psalterii, describes how this took place. … He goes on to say:

“Then St. Dominic explained the Angelic Salutation to them, using simple comparisons and examples from everyday life.”

Blessed Alan, according to Carthagena, mentioned several other occasions when Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic to urge him and inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more in order to wipe out sin and convert sinners and heretics.

In another passage Carthagena says:

“Blessed Alan said Our Lady revealed to him that, after she had appeared to St. Dominic, her Divine Son appeared to him and affirmed:

“Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying on your own wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men, you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls.

“But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is given bitter medicine, he needs to be prepared by being put into the right frame of mind to really benefit from it.

“That is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in His mercy could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So, I want you to preach my Rosary. ” (2)

In another place Blessed Alan says:

All priests should say a Hail Mary with the faithful before preaching, to ask for God’s grace. (3) They do this because of a revelation that St. Dominic had from Our Lady.

St. Dominic takes the instruction of Our Lady on the Rosary and reaps its fruits for his preaching

“My Son,” she said one day, “do not be surprised that your sermons fail to bear the results you had hoped for. You are trying to cultivate a piece of ground that has not had any rain. Now, when God planned to renew the face of the earth, He started by sending down rain from heaven – and this was the Angelic Salutation. In this way God reformed the world.

“So when you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.”

St. Dominic lost no time in obeying, and from then on he exerted great influence by his sermons.” (4)

I have been very pleased to quote these well-known authors word for word for the benefit of those who might otherwise have doubts as to the marvelous power of the Rosary. As long as priests followed St. Dominic’s example and preached devotion to the Holy Rosary, piety and fervor thrived throughout the Christian world and in those religious orders which were devoted to the Rosary. But since people have neglected this gift from Heaven, all kinds of sin and disorder have spread far and wide.

Continued below

1. Alan de la Roche, De dignit. Psalt., ch. 18; quoted by Carthagena in De Sacris Arcanis Deiparae, bk. 16, hom. 1.
2. Alan de la Roche, De Dignit. Psal., ch. 17; Carthagena, De Sacris Arcanis, bk. 16, hom. 1.
3. St. Antoninus, Part 4, Tit. 15, ch. 14, quoted by P. A. Spinelli in Maria Deipara Thronus Dei, ch. 29, No. 38.
4. This last quotation is from “The Book of Miracles of the Holy Rosary,” written in Italian, also found in Justin’s works, Sermon 143 in P. A. Spinelli, ibid., who quotes a text borrowed from Alan de la Roche.

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Blessed Alan de la Roche & the Revival of the Rosary

by St. Louis de Montfort

All things, even the holiest, are subject to change, especially when they are dependent on man’s free will. It is hardly to be wondered at, then, that the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary only retained its first fervor for a century after it was instituted by St. Dominic. After this it was like a thing buried and forgotten.

The Black Death depopulated Catholic Europe, hitting these cities especially hard

Doubtless, too, the wicked scheming and jealousy of the Devil were largely responsible for getting people to neglect the Rosary, and thus block the flow of God’s grace that it had drawn upon the world.

Thus, in 1349 God punished the whole of Europe with the most terrible plague that had ever been known. Starting in the East, it spread throughout Italy, Germany, France, Poland and Hungary, bringing desolation wherever it went, for out of a hundred men hardly one lived to tell the tale. Big cities, towns, villages and monasteries were almost completely deserted during the three years that the epidemic lasted.

This scourge of God was quickly followed by two others, the heresy of the Flagellants (1) and a tragic Schism in 1376. (2)


Alan ordered to revive the Rosary

Later on, when these trials were over, thanks to the mercy of God, Our Lady told Blessed Alan to revive the former Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. Blessed Alan was one of the Dominican Fathers at the monastery at Dinan in Brittany [France]. He was an eminent theologian and a famous preacher. Our Lady chose him because, since the Confraternity had originally been started in that province, it was fitting that a Dominican from the same province should have the honor of re-establishing it. (3)

Blessed Alan began this great work in 1460, after a special warning from Our Lord. This is how he received that urgent message, as he himself tells it:

One day when he was offering Mass, Our Lord, Who wished to spur him on to preach the Holy Rosary, spoke to him in the Sacred Host. “How can you crucify me again so soon?”

Our Lady orders Blessed Alan de Roche to revive the devotion of the Rosary

“What did you say, Lord?” asked Blessed Alan, horrified.

“You crucified Me once before by your sins,” answered Jesus, “and I would willingly be crucified again rather than have My Father offended by the sins you used to commit. You are crucifying Me again now because you have all the learning and understanding that you need to preach My Mother’s Rosary, and you are not doing it. If you only did that, you could teach many souls the right path and lead them away from sin. But you are not doing it, and so you yourself are guilty of the sins that they commit.”

This terrible reproach made Blessed Alan solemnly resolve to preach the Rosary unceasingly. (4)

Our Lady also said to him one day to inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more: “You were a great sinner in your youth, but I obtained the grace of your conversion from my Son. Had such a thing been possible, I would have liked to have gone through all kinds of suffering to save you, because converted sinners are a glory to me. (5) And I would have done that also to make you worthy of preaching my Rosary far and wide.”

St. Dominic appeared to Blessed Alan as well (6) and told him of the great results of his ministry: he had preached the Rosary unceasingly, his sermons had born great fruit and many people had been converted during his missions.

He said to Blessed Alan: “See what wonderful results I have had through preaching the Rosary. You and all who love Our Lady ought to do the same so that, by means of this holy practice of the Rosary, you may draw all people to the real science of the virtues.” (7)

Briefly, then, this is the history of how St. Dominic established the Holy Rosary and of how Blessed Alan de la Roche restored it.


1. The Flagellants was a movement that arose in Italy in the 13th century, and was revived after the Black Death. The Flagellants were groups of lay men who publicly flagellated themselves to make reparation for sinful mankind. They soon became a sect that held outlandish and unorthodox views. They cast doubt on the necessity or desirability of the Sacraments, they pretended to absolve each other of their sins, to cast out evil spirits and even work miracles. Pope Clement VI condemned the movement in 1348. It must be noted that it is only the heresy of the Flagellants – not their public flagellation customs – that is reprehensible. Public flagellation have continued to this day, as we can see in Holy Week processions in Spain.
2. After the long exile of Avignon (1309-1378) ended, the Church entered the Western Schism (1378-1418). It was a turbulent period where Popes and Antipopes were present in the Church.
3. Rosier mystique, 9th decade, ch. 4.
4. Rosier mystique, 9th decade, ch. 7. Alan de la Roche, De Dignit. Psalt. Part 2, ch. 9.
5. Rosier mystique, 9th decade, ch. 8.
6. Alan de la Roche, De Dignit. Psalt., Part 2, ch. 7.
7. Ibid., ch. 13; quoted by Carthagena in De Sacris Arcanis Deiparae, book 2, ch. 17.


Excerpt from "The Secret of the Rosary," in God Alone: The Collected Writings of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1995