St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, CSsR (1696–1787), founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), was one of the Church’s greatest champions of the Holy Rosary. He regarded it not merely as a prayer of comfort, but as a weapon for spiritual battle and a path to holiness.
In his masterpiece The Glories of Mary (1750), St. Alphonsus taught that the Rosary is indispensable for perseverance and salvation. For him, it was “the prayer of the strong, the prayer of warriors,” capable of repelling evil and advancing the cause of goodness.
He urged the faithful to pray with devotion over haste. Citing St. Eulalia, he reminded that Our Lady is more pleased with “five decades said slowly and devoutly than fifteen said hurriedly.” True prayer, he said, flows from the heart, not from the speed of the lips.
St. Alphonsus lived what he preached. He wore a fifteen-decade Rosary at his cincture and required his Redemptorist sons to do the same. Even as a bishop, he kept his Marian focus, often praying: “My Mother and my hope, help me and my people.”
Near the end of his life, his devotion did not waver. Once, while being wheeled by his brother, he asked whether he had finished his Rosary. When told they could skip it due to his fatigue, he replied firmly: “I fear for my eternal salvation if I neglect to say it for just one day.”
His life remains a vivid reminder that the Rosary is more than repetition—it is a pledge of victory in our greatest battles. Through it, we find strength in Christ and the loving intercession of His Mother.
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, guide us to be warriors of the Rosary and to secure our triumph in Christ.