Date 1 September 1883 | Text In English | |
Argument Encouraging Rosary devotion Encyclical number 12 of 85 of the pontificate | ||
Supremi apostolatus officio ("The Supreme Apostolic Office") (commonly referred to "On Devotion of the Rosary") is the first of eleven encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII on the Rosary. It was issued on September 1, 1883, encouraging the practice.
Leo echoed the words of the oldest known Marian prayer (known in the Latin tradition as the “Sub Tuum Praesidium”), when he wrote, “It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary.” He then gives a brief history of the rosary.
"Not only do We earnestly exhort all Christians to give themselves to the recital of the pious devotion of the Rosary publicly, or privately in their own house and family, and that unceasingly, but we also desire that the whole of the month of October in this year should be consecrated to the Holy Queen of the Rosary."
This was followed in 1884 by Superiore anno also on the Rosary.