"Our merciful
God, as you know, raised up against these most direful enemies [Albigensian
heretics] a most holy man [St. Dominic], the illustrious parent and founder of
the Dominican order. Great in the
integrity of his doctrine, in his example of virtue, and by his apostolic
labors, he proceeded undauntedly to attack the enemies of the Catholic Church,
not by force of arms; but trusting wholly to that devotion to which he was the
first Institute under the name of the holy Rosary, which was the first to
disseminate through the length and breadth of the earth by him and his
pupils. Guided, in fact, by divine
inspiration and grace, he foresaw that this devotion, like a most powerful
warlike weapon, would be the means of putting the enemy to flight, and of
confounding their audacity and mad impiety…it is one of the most painful and
grievous sights to see so many souls, redeemed by the blood of Christ, snatched
from salvation by the whirlwind of an age of error, precipitated into the abyss
of eternal death. Our need of divine
help is as great today as when the great Dominic introduced the use of the
Rosary of Mary as a balm for the wounds of his contemporaries."
(Pope Leo XIII –
Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio)
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