Some time ago the following query was submitted to me: How can one pray the Rosary in honor of a Saint, since the Rosary is constituted by the Lords Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, the Minor Doxology, the Apostolic Symbol, all which are addressed to God, save for the Ave Maria which is addressed to Our Lady?
Strictly speaking, one cannot pray the Rosary to anyone other than the Lord God and His Blessed Mother, since the two prayers that comprise the Rosary are addressed only to Them. However, one can pray a Rosary in honor of a Saint in various ways.
Regarding the Lord's Prayer:
One of the most efficacious ways to pray the Rosary in honor of a Saint is to say the Lord's Prayer in adoration and thanksgiving to the Blessed Trinity for the election [*that is, the act of will whereby God, out of his infinite and eternal love, irrevocably predestines a soul to glory and grace] of any given Saint and the concomitant graces and privileges that adorn the soul of the Saint (particularly that of the Beatific Vision).
Nothing gives more pleasure to the Saints than having their devotees realize that their predestination to glory and grace was completely gratuitous and preordained from all eternity by the Lord God who loved them with a special predilection, and, being cognizant of this, offer supreme adoration to the inscrutable wisdom and infinite charity of the Trinity for the wonders wrought in the Saints.
Such consciousness would naturally lead to the moral betterment of ourselves and a more intensified cultivation of the interior life, out of love and adoration to such an ineffable Deity and in imitation of the Saints. The Saints, in turn, will be more readily moved to assist us, seeing that we are not profaning our devotion to them as mere exterior practice of superficial piety. It is because the Protestants, naturalists, and other apostates and heretics ignore this that they so blindly spurn the beautiful dogma of the Communion of the Saints.
Regarding the Angelical Salutation:
Likewise, one may praise and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary whilst saying the Angelical Salutation for all the graces which she dispensed to the Saint. In virtue of her Divine Maternity and cooperation in the mysteries of the Redemption, the Blessed Virgin has been worthily constituted as the universal Mediatress of all graces which the Incarnate Word merited during His divine life upon earth, most especially the sacred Passion. For the same reason, she has been elevated and constituted universal and sovereign Queen over all creation, and her prayers and intercessions are as edicts and decrees of an empress.
Therefore, all the Saints and Elect owe to the Blessed Virgin the double debt of gratitude and obedience: gratitude for being the Mediatress and Co-Redemptress through whom the infinite merits and graces of the Incarnate Word were given to them, and obedience as Queen of Heaven enthroned at the right hand of our Divine Savior. Here is to be found the reason why the Blessed Virgin's sublime Magnificat is always said at Vespers in the Divine Office, just as Our Lady herself repeats this wonderful Canticle in Heaven whenever redeemed souls are finally admitted to the Beatific Vision and will forever repeat it when the number of the Elect will be filled.
Regarding the Meditation upon the Rosary Mysteries:
When one meditates on the Mysteries of the Rosary, one would do well to think that Our Blessed Lord is working the redemption of the Saint in particular, with a love so incomprehensible that Our Lord would become flesh in the womb of the sacred Virgin, live a life of suffering and deprivation, endure the almost infinite wounds, bruises, pains and humiliations of the Passion, and gloriously arise from the dead and ascend unto the right hand of the Father to send the Paraclete and to assume His Blessed Mother in soul and body, and crown her as sovereign and universal Queen, do all these things even if the Saint's soul alone incurred the curse of sin.
All the more amazing is this when one considers that a single act of will on the part of the Incarnate Word would have sufficed to redeem innumerable worlds. Yet, this would not have sufficed for the infinite and inscrutable love of the Sacred Heart. Nor would have saying the sublime Fiat at the Annunciation be enough for the love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She went so far as to offer her Divine Son on Mount Calvary and participate in His poverty, suffering, Passion and death. We will never know in this world how much our redemption cost Our Blessed Mother, because the cost was the infinite treasure of He Whom she loved as Son and adored as God.
Regarding the Minor Doxology and the Apostolic Symbol:
The Minor Doxology gives us an opportunity to adore the Three Divine Persons distinctly for a Saint's election and all concomitant graces and privileges (particularly the Beatific Vision they now eternally enjoy). We ought to offer unto the Blessed Trinity the infinite merits of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother as an act of thanksgiving united to all the Masses being said throughout the round orb of the earth as an act of gratitude for the blessings that were vouchsafed to any given Saint whom we intend to honor.
The Symbol of the Apostles may be said in the spirit of renewing our Faith in the very same sacred mysteries and dogmas which the Saint upheld and defended, which is a particularly laudable practice when honoring a Martyr or a Doctor of the Church or when one honors a Baptismal or Confirmation Patron. It would be salutary to renew one's baptismal vows when saying the Creed and resolving to live and die in communion with Holy Mother Church.
A Helpful Hint:
To conclude, it would be very praiseworthy to offer the indulgences one gains by saying a Rosary in honor of a Saint for the relief of those souls in Purgatory who were most devout to the Saint, or to those the Saint wishes to assist the most. This would be a supernatural act of charity that would be most pleasing to Our Lord, His Blessed Mother and the Saint, and would therefore make the Rosary more efficacious and meritorious.
I hope you find this post helpful :reading: