Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted the Rosary
Blessed Alan de la Roche
Priest and religious († 1475)
Alan was born in Brittany in the 1400s. He became a Dominican priest, a lecturer in theology, and a distinguished preacher. At that time, the rosary had fallen into neglect. So had the Confraternity of the Rosary, a pious association said to date back to the time of Saint Dominic.
It is said Alan was praying before the Eucharist when our Lord spoke to him. “You have all the learning and understanding that you need to preach my Mother’s rosary, and you are not doing it. If only you did this you could teach many souls…but you are not doing it, and so you yourself are guilty of the sins that they commit.” Alan began to preach the rosary earnestly and founded what became the Rosary Confraternity, a pious association whose members share an abundance of spiritual benefits, including the prayers and Masses of all Dominicans.
There is uncertainty over the authenticity of some of the texts attributed to Blessed Alan, and not of all these seem to have survived. Saint Alphonsus Liguori wrote that Alan recorded a vision of souls being freed from purgatory by rosaries said on earth: “Numerous souls were released daily who otherwise would have been obliged to remain in purgatory for years.” Alan died in 1475. Though not officially beatified, he has been honored as “Blessed Alan” for centuries.
Heavenly Father, through the rosary,
free the souls in purgatory.
