October 2
Matka Boża Różańcowa, Cracow, Poland
In the Dominican Basilica of the Trinity in Cracow is a large chapel dedicated to the Mother of God of the Rosary. The icon on its main altar, crowned on October 2, 1921, is a copy of the ancient Salus Populi Romani (Health of the Roman People) image in the church of St. Mary of the Snows in Romethe icon Pope Gregory the Great carried in procession to end the plague of 597. During the Battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571), when ships of a coalition of Christian countries routed the Turkish navy off Greece, Pope Pius V prayed the rosary with a large group of faithful before the Roman icon. The old image thus became associated with the newer devotion of the rosary and with saving Europe from Ottoman rule. Churches throughout Catholic Europe were dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, and copies of the Salus Populi Romani proliferated. Cardinal Maciejowski brought such a copy from Rome to Cracow in 1600. The image played a part in the "Polish Lepanto" in 1621, when at Khotyn, Ukraine (then Chocim, Poland) an allied force of Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians faced a Turkish army twice its size. On October 3, the bishop of Krakow led an hours-long rosary procession with the holy icon. The entire population joined in. When the Turks gave up their attack and signed a treaty, Our Lady of the Rosary gained another victory. Her feast is celebrated in Cracow on the first Sunday of October. The Basilica's website is www.krakow.dominikanie.pl/. (Information also from Podhalanski Serwis Informacyjny WATRA, www.watra.pl; and other sources; image from Diecezja Gliwicka, www.kuria.gliwice.pl.)
Also commemorated this date:
 | Madonna di Fatima, Cittą della Pieve, Perugia, Umbria, Italy. Statue arrived, 1942, at church to become Italy's first Fatima shrine. |
| Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Wilsveen, Nootdorp, Pijnacker-Nootdorp, South Holland, Netherlands. Replica of rediscovered statue, now in Catharijneconvent Museum, Utrecht, dedicated at St. Bartholomew's Catholic Church, 1971. |
| Matka Boża Tuchowska, Tuchów, Tarnów, Lesser Poland, Poland. Icon crowned, 1902. |
| Matka Boża Borecka, Borek Stary, Tyczyn, Rzeszów, Subcarpathia, Poland. Icon crowned, 1921. |
| Unserer Lieben Frau vom Rosenkranz, Gurmels, See, Fribourg, Switzerland (Our Lady of the Rosary). Church consecrated, 1712. |
| Our Lady of the Island, Manorville, Long Island, New York, USA. Shrine dedicated, 1976. |