Friends,
in late May of this year, while in France shooting for the new and upcoming Marian docu-film, we visited the place were tradition asserts that the Virgin Mary entrusted Saint Dominic with the mandate to preach the Rosary, promising her maternal protection for those who pray it with faith and fervor.
The place is Muret, a town of 25k in Southern France, not far from Lourdes. On 12 September 2013, along its river banks, the main battle between the Knights of the Abigensian Crusade and the forces behind the Cathar heresy, including King Peter II of Aragon and Count Raymond VI of Toulose, was fought.
Despite being outnumberd by as much as twenty times, the Catholic contingent of 900 cavalry men swiftly and decisively defeated the heretics.
To celebrate the miraculous victory, a chapel of the Holy Rosary was built in the church of Muret, the very first in history, where St. Dominic was praying. This is the plaque that commerates the event:
With this pilgrimage, we also wanted to recollect the truth of the old antiphon: “Gaude, Maria Virgo, cunctas hereses tu sola interemisti in universo mundo”; meaning that the Our Lady defends us from every error regarding the faith.
By simply affirming the Church’s dogmas that concern the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cardinal Ratzinger once reminded us: we are solidly at the center of our faith in a Living God who intervenes in the world, especially through the Incarnation of His Son [n.b. which the Cathars rejected], and in the last things, particularly the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life.
With the Rosary, we pray that our celestial Mother will defeat the the contemporary heresies that threaten the faith of the new generation of Catholics.
Yours in Jesus and Mary,
Umberto
The World Rosary Day team
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