St. Dominic at Notre Dame in Paris

Attribution: from Blessed Alan de la Roche, quoted by the scholar Carthagena.

One day St. Dominic was to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, on the feast of St. John the Evangelist, before the whole University and many noblemen. Anxious to give a fine sermon worthy of so learned a crowd, he was in a little chapel behind the high altar preparing it by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him with a book in her hand.

"Dominic," she said, "even though what you have planned to say may be very good, I am bringing you a much better sermon." He took the book, read it, understood it, and thanked her from his heart.

When the time came he climbed into the pulpit and, though it was the feast of St. John, said only that the Apostle had been found worthy to guard the Queen of Heaven. Then he set aside all learned eloquence and simply explained the Hail Mary word by word, as if to children, using the plain illustrations from Our Lady's book. He told this story to Blessed Alan years later as a warning against preaching for the sake of praise rather than for the good of souls.

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Source:

Simplified retellings of the miracle and conversion stories that St. Louis de Montfort gathered in The Secret of the Rosary, written in the early eighteenth century. These are paraphrased in plain modern prose, faithful to the substance of the traditional English translation but not word for word. Montfort himself called them "ancient but authentic stories about the holy Rosary," collected from earlier authors such as Blessed Alan de la Roche, and offered on human authority, not as articles of faith.