A Procession for Rosary Sunday in the 1940s

This is an updated republication of a post originally published here on October 4, 2009

Tomorrow, October 5, 2025 is Rosary Sunday.

The Rosarian's Handbook (1942) describes a procession for Rosary Sunday to be sponsored by the Rosary Altar Society.

Before the procession, the priest blesses the roses with a special blessing. According to the handbook, the blessing, reserved to the Dominican Order, was granted to the Rectors of the Rosary Confraternity. After the blessing, the priest distributes the blessed roses at the communion rail to the members of the Rosary Altar Society and to all the faithful who then venerate the roses. (Or, the Rosary roses are blessed in advance and distributed as dried petals wrapped in special envelopes.)

After the distribution of the roses, the procession begins:

"The cross-bearer and two acolytes head the procession, starting at the main sanctuary gates. They are followed by the choir boys.

"The large banner of the Rosary Altar Society -- carried by an altar boy -- follows the choir.

"Then the children symbolizing living Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be to the Fathers fall in line after the bearer of the Society banner.

"The Our Father is symbolized by a young man wearing dark clothes with a white shoulder sash imprinted with black lettering 'Our Father'.

"The Hail Mary is symbolized by girls wearing shoulder sashes, imprinted with silver block lettering 'Hail Mary'.

"The 'Glory be to the Father' is symbolized by three baby boys (suggesting Our Lord's words 'whose angels are ever before the face of the Father in heaven'). All three of the children carry on the right shoulder one long white cloth band or ribbon printed in gold lettering 'Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.' Since the Trinity is symbolized by the triangle -- a three-cornered or triangular head crown of gilded material may be worn by each of the boys.

"Either the five mysteries or the entire fifteen mysteries according to local resources are interpreted by small banners ornamented with the particular mystery or gospel scene depicted on a print and surrounded by floral designs. The bottom of each banner should be fringed.

"The Joyful Mysteries carry the white color motif, the Sorrowful Mysteries violet, and the Glorious Mysteries gold.

"Thus the first decade of the Holy Rosary -- the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the ever Blessed Virgin Mary -- would be portrayed in a living way by a child in white dress carrying the processional banner depicting Mary being addressed by the Archangel Gabriel. The banner carrier is followed by one young man with the Our Father imprinted on his white sash.

"Ten girls in white dresses and with white shoulder sashes lettered in silver, 'Hail Mary' typify the decades of ten Hail Marys.

"Following these girls and walking in single file, three baby boys in white suits, holding the white cloth, lettered with the 'Glory be to the Father,' etc., as stated before.

"Each decade follows the same routine. If instead of the children, circumstances favor the use of Rosarian members as symbols of prayer in the living procession of the Most Holy Rosary, this usage will be according to approved tradition.

"The route of the procession is usually around the aisles of the church, although when permitted by public goodwill it may be around the streets of the square on which the church building is located. This matter is left entirely to the discretion of the Rector of the Rosary Confraternity.

"In the last position of the Rosary Procession walks the celebrant wearing surplice, white stole and white cope.

"When the procession is finished the celebrant stands before the step of the Rosary Altar Shrine, and sings:

"V. Dignare me laudare te, Virgo Sacrata.
R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.
V. Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii, ora pro nobis.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

"OREMUS: Deus, cuius Unigenitus per vitam, mortem et resurrectionem suam nobis salutis aeternae praemia comparavit, concede, quaesumus, ut haec Mysteria Sanctissimo Rosario Beatae Mariae Virginis recolentes: et imitemur quod continent, et quod promittunt assequamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

"The function will then be closed with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and the singing of the Te Deum, or Holy God, We Praise Thy Name."

Source:
Dolan, Dominic, O.P. (Ed.); The Rosarian’s Handbook of the Society of the Rosary Altar (Marchbanks Press, New York, 1942), pp. 90-93.

All material from The Rosarian's Handbook used with the kind permission of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

Image:
Caravaggio's, "Madonna of the Rosary" (St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin), from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.

We Offer Thee Our Roses

 

This coming Tuesday, October 7, will be the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

This is a republication of a piece I originally published on October 7, 2009.

Here is a beautiful Marian anthem for the occasion:

Hymn to Our Lady of the Rosary

"Queen of the Holy Rosary! Oh, bless us as we pray
And offer thee our roses, in garlands day by day;
While from our Father's garden, with loving hearts and bold,
We gather to thine honor buds white, and red, and gold.

"Queen of the Holy Rosary! Each mystery blends with thine
The sacred life of Jesus in every step divine.
Thy soul was His fair garden, thy virgin breast his throne,
Thy thoughts His faithful mirror, reflecting Him alone.

"Sweet Lady of the Rosary! White roses let us bring,
And lay them round thy footstool before our Infant King.
For nestling in thy bosom God's Son was fain to be,
The child of thy obedience, and spotless purity."

And, here is a short history of the celebration by Jordan Aumann, O.P.:

"This feast derives from the feast of St. Mary of Victory, instituted by the Dominican Pope Pius V after the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Lepanto on October 7, 1571 [the first Sunday of October in 1571]. Pope Gregory XIII made it obligatory for Rome and for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in 1573. In 1716 Pope Clement XI inscribed the feast in the Roman Calendar for the first Sunday in October. The Dominicans also celebrated this feast on the first Sunday of October.

". . . . The title of this feast was changed from Holy Rosary to Our Lady of the Rosary in 1960."

And, here is a more detailed early history from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:

"Apart from the single defeat of the Albigensian heretics at the battle of Muret in 1213 which legend has attributed to the recitation of the Rosary by St. Dominic, it is believed that Heaven has on many occasions rewarded the faith of those who had recourse to this devotion in times of special danger. More particularly, the naval victory of Lepanto gained by Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October in 1571 responded wonderfully to the processions made at Rome on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St. Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary. In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of Our Lady of the Snows) at Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. . . . Leo XIII has since raised the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and has added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation 'Queen of the Most Holy Rosary'. On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statute of Our Lady. This has been called the 'Portiuncula' of the Rosary."

Sources:
Aumann, Jordan, O.P.; and Lodi, Enzo; Saints of the Roman Calendar (Alba House, New York, 1992), p. 302.

Dolan, Dominic, O.P. (Ed.); The Rosarian’s Handbook of the Society of the Rosary Altar (Marchbanks Press, New York, 1942), p. 94 (source for the hymn).

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia. (New Advent)

Image:
Jacopo de mino Montepulciano's, "The Coronation of the Virgin", from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.

The Family Rosary in the 1940s

A book published in 1942 for members of the Rosary Altar Society had this to say about the importance of the family Rosary and the methods for praying it in the home:

"His Holiness, Pope Pius XI, of happy memory, in his Rosary Encyclical Letter ‘Amid Ever-Worsening Evils,’ dated September 1937, wrote an emphatic message on the Family Rosary.

"Only through Catholic piety and faith exercised by the king and queen of each home, can the civilization which is our Christian heritage be strengthened, and to this end the family recitation of the Rosary is a powerful means of thwarting the cunning intrusions and blatant insolences of modern pagan heresies.

"No Catholic custom is better suited to heal family troubles, to unite quarreling partners, to instill love and obedience in the souls of children, to invoke health for the sick, to obtain rest for the souls in purgatory than the recitation of five decades of Our Lady’s Rosary -- especially in the intimacy of the family circle.

"This custom is associated with the family meal in the evening, which is usually the most convenient time to assemble the greatest number of members.

"Shortly after the evening table is left, the father or mother simply says: Let us say the rosary. The family members then kneel at the chairs on which each has been seated, and answer the introductory prayers of the Rosary.

"There are three methods of family Rosary recitation:

"The first method is after the manner of church recital. The leader, father, mother or eldest of the group recites the first part of the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory be to the Father, the Hail Holy Queen, and the final prayer throughout the five decades of the Holy Rosary.

"In the alternate method, the introductory prayers and the first decade are taken in the leading part by the head of the house, the second decade by the next in authority or age, the third by the next member, and so on. All others in the group answer with the latter part of the prayers of the decades. Then the leader recites the Hail, Holy Queen, etc.

"The third method is similar to the first in this, that the leader of the group alternates with the others in the group the recitation of the first part and the second part of the prayers through the several decades, but announces all the mysteries and does not transfer the lead to other single members of the group. This method is used by Dominican missionaries, and in Dominican communities.

"The second method is the more popular family procedure because it gives every member, from the oldest to the fifth in order, the interest of leading the first part of the decade prayers.

"However, methods are of second moment; so long as two or three are united in the name of God, there is Christ in the midst of them, and the family circle becomes like a domestic church for the Rosary devotion. The time involved is not great -- so the saying of the beads is no endurance test on any count. It is better to say it quickly than to omit it entirely."

The author then goes on to say that the custom of the family Rosary beads is "a custom to which many a soul later harkens back as the sweetest of memories of home."

Source:
Dolan, Dominic, O.P. (Ed); The Rosarian’s Handbook of the Society of the Rosary Altar (Marchbanks Press, New York, 1942), pp. 101-103.

All material from The Rosarian's Handbook used with the kind permission of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

Image:
Murillo’s “Madonna with the Rosary”, from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.