A crusade for peace: Melbourne men unite in prayer

Every first Saturday of the month, the sound of prayer fills the eastern courtyard of St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne, where a group of men gather united in their devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary.

These men are a part of the global Men’s Rosary Crusade, a movement that is steadily growing in popularity in Australia and abroad.

‘The Melbourne movement had humble beginnings,’ says Mario Jurjevic, one of the group’s leaders and founders.

‘During COVID, a few women from different parishes came together for public Rosary devotions at Federation Square. A few men asked if they could join, and that’s how it all started.’

After the pandemic, a group of men, including Mario, were inspired to carry on these public acts of faith, leading to the establishment of the Melbourne section of the crusade. They had seen the movement flourish, first in Poland and then in Sydney, and sought the permission of St Patrick’s Cathedral to host the monthly event in its grounds.

We’ve just allowed the voices of these men participating to spread the devotion throughout the wider community.

What began as a small group of men has now grown to 80–100 young and old attendees, proudly standing together to recite the Rosary. The growing attendance, Mario notes, has happened predominantly through word of mouth. ‘We’ve let it grow organically. There’s been very minimal social media promotion,’ he says.

‘We’ve just allowed the voices of these men participating to spread the devotion throughout the wider community.’

A focus on Our Lady of Fatima

At the heart of these monthly gatherings is a faithful commitment to Our Lady of Fatima and the Five First Saturdays devotion that she instituted.

The apparitions at Fatima are seen as one of the most significant Marian events of the 20th century, in which the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, appeared to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.

Our Lady first appeared on 13 May 1917 and continued to appear monthly until 13 October 1917. During these six apparitions, she called for penance, conversion and, in particular, the daily recitation of the Rosary to bring peace to the world in a time when World War I was laying waste to Europe.

It comes back to Our Blessed Mother guiding us back to Christ as the Truth and Light of the world.

Later, on 10 December 1925, Lucia—by then a postulant at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain—experienced a vision of the Holy Virgin and the Christ Child. According to Lucia, Mary requested the institution of the devotion of the Five First Saturdays, promising special graces at the hour of death for those who fulfilled the conditions of the devotion on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, including going to Confession, receiving Holy Communion, saying five decades of the Rosary, and keeping Mary company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.

This capacity of the Rosary to bring peace is a message that Mario believes is a powerful one to share in our own time, when violence and war seem so widespread.

‘It’s really about conversion,’ Mario says when asked how the Rosary can achieve peace, as promised by Our Lady of Fatima.

It’s always about opening our hearts in mercy, love and faith.

‘It comes back to Our Blessed Mother guiding us back to Christ as the Truth and Light of the world,’ he says.

‘Our Lady doesn’t put any condemnation on those who don’t know our Lord. It’s always about opening our hearts in mercy, love and faith, and Our Blessed Mother is the most perfect example of that.’

‘The greatest of saints had a deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother because there is no better and more perfect way of coming to Christ than through her.’

For these men, the power of their united prayer is not theological rhetoric. Over the last three years, they have witnessed many conversions, reversions and healings of illnesses and addictions among attendees of the monthly Rosary.

‘We had a patron here who had a blood clot on his brain and was told he only had a 20 per cent chance of survival,’ Mario says.

‘The brothers offered up Rosaries for his intention and he ended up leaving the hospital in two weeks. The doctors couldn’t explain it, but we know it was through faith.’

Young and old stand together

Despite the public nature of the event, the devotion has attracted a diverse range of Melbourne’s Catholics, including many young people. Wearing religious T-shirts and jumpers, these countercultural young men are clearly proud to be witnesses to their faith and to be seen reciting the Rosary.

Mario believes that the event appeals to these young men because it offers a chance to encounter the goodness, truth and beauty of the Catholic faith, especially in a world that often struggles to address life’s most fundamental questions. ‘They want a true understanding of the faith, and the Rosary is a great propagator of that,’ he says.

When I pray the Rosary, ... it just gives me that motivation, that enthusiasm again, to continue to live out my faith.

A young attendee at the events, Lucca, notes that for him, the Rosaries refocus him on the true purpose of life. ‘It’s great to pray the Rosary and be around like-minded people,’ he says.

‘It reminds me that we are just passing through in this life and we need to stay focused on the end goal.’

Inspired to share the faith

As the concluding prayers are spoken and the men have a chance to mingle and catch up, it is hard not to see the way each of them is uplifted by the experience of this public Rosary.

Renato, a regular at these events, says that the sense of cameraderie and strength he experiences from praying the Rosary with other men is something that inspires him to be more open about his faith.

‘When I pray the Rosary, firstly with other men, and secondly in public, I walk away feeling so uplifted,’ says Renato.

‘I feel really motivated to go out and profess my faith, first to my family and then to those other people that I meet in the workplace or wherever I go. It just gives me that motivation, that enthusiasm again, to continue to live out my faith.’