Official Website of the
Catholic Diocese of Little Rock
October is the Month of the Rosary
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 - Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026
Location: Worldwide
Pray Rosary for Missions Worldwide
Click on the button above to sign up to receive the Zoom link to participate in the Pontifical Mission Societies USA's daily “World Mission Rosary”. It will be prayed via Zoom at 2 p.m. central time for the intentions of the Church’s missionary activity throughout the world during October. Or pray the World MIssion Rosary any time.
The month of October is dedicated to the rosary primarily because the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated Oct. 7. Tradition holds that Mary gave the rosary to St. Dominic (1170-1221) to assist him in combating the Albigensian heresy in southern France in 1206.
The devotion became widely popular and by 1569, Pope St. Pius V officially approved the rosary in its present form with the papal bull, "Consueverunt Romani Pontifices." By then the rosary included the second half of the "Hail Mary" and the "Glory be to the Father" at the conclusion of each mystery. | How to Pray the Rosary Guide.
Since then popes throughout the centuries have called upon the faithful to turn to the rosary in times in trouble. Pope Francis has done this in the month of the rosary in 2018. He also asked Catholics to pray the rosary for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), later invited American Catholics to pray a virtual rosary on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in 2020 for the same reason.
Pope Francis also invited the faithful to pray a daily rosary for peace in May 2022 to bring an end to the war and the suffering of the people of Ukraine. Pope Leo XIV continues this tradition in 2025. "I invite everyone, each day of the coming month, to pray the Rosary for peace — personally, in the family and in community," he said.
