Membership
Welcome to the Confraternity
YOUR CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP
Thank you for joining the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary.
As your next step, please dowload your membership certificate using the link provided in the email. You may enter your name or your family’s name on the certificate as a sign of your enrollment and devotion.
Each member includes deceased fellow members as well; and thus he knows that in turn he will be included in the prayers of hundreds of thousands both now and hereafter.
This led the Cure of Ars to say:
“If anyone has the happiness of being in the Confraternity of the Rosary, he has in all corners of the world brothers and sisters who pray for him.”
The deceased cannot be enrolled in the Confraternity.
On the Day of Enrollment
ROSARY INDULGENCES
“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.” ~ CCC 1471
For members of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, is granted:
- On the Day of Enrollment: (When application is made, a certificate of membership is sent, indicating the day of the enrollment.)
- On the Following Feast Days: Christmas, Easter, Annunciation, Purification, Assumption, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Immaculate Conception.
For those who pray the Rosary, a plenary indulgence is granted under the usual conditions, when the Rosary is prayed in Church, or in a Public Oratory, in a family (family Rosary), Religious Community, or Pious Association. Otherwise a partial indulgence is granted.
Photo credit: Diocese of Calgary by local photographer, Bandi
Indulgences & Promises
FOR THE INTERCESSION OF THE ENTIRE HEAVENLY COURT
An indulgence is the cancellation of temporal punishment due for sin, when the sin’s guilt has already been pardoned.
An indulgence is partial if it frees the Christian partially from the temporal punishment due for his sins, plenary if it frees him wholly.
Both partial and plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead, but only by way of suffrage.
Since the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI on Indulgences, a partial indulgence is no longer expressed in reference to time, i.e. days or years.
A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day, except by those on the threshold of death.
To gain a plenary indulgence the person must perform the indulgenced act, and satisfy these conditions: Sacramental Confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intention, and freedom from all attachment to sin, even venial sin. If this detachment is not present, or if any of the above conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence is partial.
Photo credit: Diocese of Calgary by local photographer, Bandi
The Rosary and the Dominican Order
A CONFRATERNITY OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
The history of both the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary and the Rosary itself are bound up with the early history of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). According to a longstanding and well-known tradition, St. Dominic first received the Holy Rosary from Our Lady in the 13th century. Since then the Dominican friars have promoted this devotion to Christ and His Blessed Mother.
The first Rosary Confraternity was established in the 1470s through the zealous preaching of the Dominican friar Alan de la Roche, O.P. A few years later, another local Rosary Confraternity was established in Cologne by Joseph Sprenger, O.P. After this, Rosary Confraternities began to be established throughout Europe. It was partly due to the spread of the Rosary Confraternity that devotion to Our Lady’s Rosary flourished so widely and a uniform way of reciting the Rosary developed. From the beginning, Rosary Confraternities were erected under the direction of the Dominican friars and the formal chartering of Rosary Confraternities eventually became an apostolic privilege reserved to the Dominican Order.
On August 22, 2025, during the Solemnity of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Rockies Shrine was formally enrolled into the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary. In union with the Dominican Order and the countless faithful throughout the world, our Shrine now shares in this centuries-old spiritual family, dedicated to honoring Our Lady and drawing souls closer to Christ through the prayer of the Rosary. This enrollment is also an open invitation for all parishioners and visitors of the Shrine to join the Confraternity and participate in the graces and spiritual benefits it offers.
Photo credit: Diocese of Calgary by local photographer, Bandi