Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted the Rosary
Saint Marie Alphonsine Ghattas
Religious († 1927)Feast: March 25
Sultana Maria Danil Ghattas was born in Jerusalem in 1843. Sultana Maria is Arabic for “Queen Mary,” and devotion to the Mother of God was strong in her family. Her parents, devout Arab Catholics, often invited friends to their home to pray the rosary. She entered religious life at age fourteen and made her final vows at seventeen, taking the name Marie Alphonsine.
Her community, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition, had a school in Bethlehem, where Sister Marie taught for several years. She shared her great love for the rosary with her students. During this period, she received several visions of the Blessed Mother, who asked her to start an order devoted to the rosary. With the help of her spiritual director, the new community was formed and Sister Marie received permission to transfer into it.
She never told her sisters about her visions. They only learned of them after her death. For many years she served in a number of schools, parishes, and orphanages. The last decade of her life was spent at an orphanage in Ein Karem (thought to be the site of the Visitation). Here she labored to ensure the continual recitation of the rosary. She died on March 25, 1927, after praying a rosary. She was beatified in 2009 and canonized in 2015.
Almighty Father, through the intercession of Saint Marie Alphonsine, may love for the rosary bring peace
to the people of the Middle East.
