History
Leo XIII, the Rosary Pope
1878–1903
Gioacchino Pecci reigned as Leo XIII for twenty-five years, from 1878 to 1903. Remembered for Rerum Novarum and the birth of modern Catholic social teaching, he was also called 'the Rosary Pope'. Beginning with Supremi Apostolatus Officio in 1883, he wrote some eleven encyclicals on the Rosary, almost one each autumn, presenting it as a remedy for the ills of modern society and a school of Christian life.
Leo XIII dedicated the whole month of October to the Rosary, asking that it be prayed daily in parish churches, and in 1883 he added the invocation 'Queen of the Most Holy Rosary' to the Litany of Loreto. In Laetitiae Sanctae (1893) he presented the mysteries as medicine for the soul: the Joyful teach the dignity of home and honest work, the Sorrowful patience in suffering, and the Glorious the hope of heaven.