St. Dominic and the Rosary

An account of St. Dominic at Carcassonne, France.

While St. Dominic was preaching at Carcassonne in France, a man who was possessed, and who had publicly spoken against the devotion of the holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was brought to him. The saint commanded the demons, in the name of God, to say whether the things the man had spoken against the Rosary were true.

Howling with rage, they were forced to answer, "Hear, O Christians: everything this enemy of ours has said about Mary and the holy Rosary is entirely true." They admitted further that they had no power against the servants of Mary, that many who called on her at the hour of death were saved beyond what they deserved, and that no one who perseveres in devotion to Mary and to her Rosary is lost, because she obtains for sinners a true repentance before death.

St. Dominic then had the people recite the Rosary, and at every Hail Mary the demons came out of the man like burning coals, until by the end he was wholly freed; and many who had strayed into heresy were converted.

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Source:

Simplified retellings of the "example" stories that St. Alphonsus Liguori placed at the end of each section of The Glories of Mary. These are paraphrased in plain modern prose, faithful to the substance of the 1888 English translation. Liguori himself, in his author's "Protest," noted that the miracles and apparitions in the book are offered on human authority only, not as articles of faith.