Our Lady told Blessed Alan to revive the former Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.
Blessed Alan was one of the Dominican Fathers at the monastery at Dinan, in Brittany.
He was aan eminent theologian and a famous preacher. Our Lady chose him because,
since the Confraternity had originally been started in that province, it was fitting that a
Dominican from the same province should have the honour of re-establishing it.
Blessed Alan began this great work [the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary] in 1460, after a special warning from our Lord. This is how he received that urgent message, as he himself tells it:
One day when he was offering Mass, our Lord, who wished to spur him on to preach the holy Rosary, spoke to him in the Sacred Host. "How can you crucify me again so soon?" Jesus said. "What did you say.
Lord?" asked Blessed Alan, horrified. "You crucified me once before by your sins," answered Jesus, "and I would willingly be crucified again rather than have my Father offended
by the sins you used to commit. You are crucifying me again now because you have all the learning and understanding that you need to preach my Mother's Rosary, and you are not doing it. If you only did that, you could teach many souls the right path and lead them away from sin. But you are not doing it, and so you yourself are guilty of the sins that they commit."
This terrible reproach made Blessed Alan solemnly resolve to preach the Rosary
unceasingly.
Our Lady also said to him one day to inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more, "You were a great sinner in your youth, but I obtained the grace of your conversion from
my Son. Had such a thing been possible, I would have liked to have gone through all kinds of suffering to save you, because converted sinners are a glory to me. And I would have done that also to make you worthy of preaching my Rosary far and wide."
Saint Dominic appeared to Blessed Alan as well and told him of the great results of his
ministry: he had preached the Rosary unceasingly, his sermons had borne great fruit and many people had been converted during his missions.