Octobri mense

Octobri mense "[At the coming of] the Month of October" is an encyclical on the Rosary by Pope Leo XIII, also known as the Rosary Pope.[1] It was issued on 22 September 1891 in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.[2]

Pope Leo XIII Coat of arms

Background
Octobri mense
Latin for 'The Month of October'
Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII
Date22 September 1891
SubjectOn the Rosary
Number40 of 85 of the pontificate
Text

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.[3]

"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.".[4] Invoking Mary 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, who says that the Annunciation was effected with the consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity.[5]

St. Dominic’s devotion to the rosary is in 1891 in “Octobri Mense”:

"...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...."[6]

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[7], 1893[8] and 1894[9].

Magnae Dei Matris
Magnae Dei Matris
Latin for 'Great Mother of God'
Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII
Date8 September 1892
SubjectThe Rosary and Christian Life
Number44 of 88 of the pontificate
Text

Octobri Mense was followed the following year by the encyclical Magnae Dei matris, (Great Mother off God) issued on 8 September 1892.[10] It is subtitled "The Rosary and Christian Life".

With this encyclical Leo continues the series of rosary encyclicals and emphasizes the following characteristics: the Rosary as an aid and voice of prayer; in the Rosary, Mary's life is portrayed as an example; the continuous prayer of the Rosary serves piety and is a holy source of divine consolation.

"[A]s we are indebted to Christ for sharing in some way with us the right, which is peculiarly His own, of calling God our Father and possessing Him as such, we are in like manner indebted to Him for His loving generosity in sharing with us the right to call Mary our Mother and to cherish her as such."[11]..."For it is mainly by faith that a man sets out on the straight and sure path to God and learns to revere in mind and heart His supreme majesty, His sovereignty over the whole of creation, His unsounded power, wisdom, and providence. For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder to those who seek Him."[12]

Leo describes the Rosary as presenting the chief mysteries of the faith for contemplation, and presents Mary "a most suitable example of every virtue."[13]

In “Magnae Dei Matris,” Leo derided the license of his times, particularly as demonstrated in the sciences and arts and the writings of the press and the “consequent laxity” in the practice of the Faith:

We have good reason to deplore the public institutions in which the teaching of the sciences and arts is purposely so organized that the name of God is passed over in silence or visited with vituperation; to deplore the license - growing more shameless by the day - of the press in publishing whatever it pleases, and the license of speech in addressing any kind of insult to Christ our God and His Church. And We deplore no less the consequent laxity and apathy in the practice of the Catholic religion which if not quite open apostasy from the Faith, is certainly going to prove an easy road to it, since it is a manner of life having nothing in common with faith.[14]

Iucudum Semper Expectatione, On the Rosary (September 8, 1894)

In 1894, in the encyclical “Iucudum Semper Expectatione”, Leo lamented that both Christ and the Virgin Mary have been affronted.  In particular, in the theater Jesus had been mocked and Judas glorified:

... a depth of shameless indignity has been reached that Jesus Christ Himself has been dragged upon the stage of a theater often contaminated with corruptions, and has been represented there discrowned of that Divinity upon which rests the whole work of human salvation. And the last touch of shame was added in an attempt to rescue from the execration of ages the guilty name of him who was the very sign of perfidy, the betrayer of Christ.[15]

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See also

Notes
  1. Church dogmatics: Volume 1 by Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley 2004 ISBN 0-567-05069-6 Page 142
  2. The Christian Faith: In the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church by Jacques Dupuis 2001 ISBN 0-8189-0893-9 page 285
  3. "Thompson, Thomas. "Twelve Rosary Encyclicals by Pope Leo XIII (1883-1898)", International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio". Archived from the original on 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  4. Pope Leo XIII, Octobri mense, §2, Vatican, September 22, 1891
  5. Octobri mense, §4.
  6. "Octobri Mense, para. 8".
  7. "Magnae Dei Matris".
  8. "Laetitiae Sanctae".
  9. "Iucunda Semper Expectatione".
  10. Pope Leo XIII. Magnae Dei matris, 8 September 1892, Libreria Editrice Vaticana
  11. Magnae Dei matris, §11.
  12. Magnae Dei matris, §14.
  13. Magnae Dei matris, §26.
  14. "Magnae Dei Matris, para. 6".
  15. "Iucudum Semper Expectatione, para. 9".
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