Throughout his career, Presley recorded many gospel songs, of different backgrounds: traditionals, black gospel, country gospel, and church hymns such as How Great Thou Art”. With one of them, “Crying In The Chapel” (previously a hit for The Orioles), he had an international bestseller. The most unusual of the lot must be “Miracle Of The Rosary”, which Elvis recorded for his 1972 album Elvis Now!, The Rosary song is the LP’s second title. The lyrics couldn’t be any more devout:

Oh Blessed Mother we pray to Thee
Thanks for the miracle of Your Rosary
Only You can hold back
Your Holy Son’s hand
Long enough for the whole world to understand
Hail Mary full of grace
The Lord is with Thee
Blessed are thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus
Oh Holy Mary dear Mother of God
Please pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death
And give thanks once again
For the miracle of Your Rosary

A powerful Catholic statement by a man who knew little about Catholicism, growing up in a region where the Church of Rome is in a tiny minority, and adhering to as denomination whose relationship with Catholicism is complicated. And yet, here Elvis is, singing about the Rosary — and not on some obscure gospel LP but on a gold-selling pop album.

And it wasn’t the record company that had suggested the song: it was chosen by Presley himself — possibly as a favour for an old friend who had written it many years earlier.

A Miracle of the Rosary The writer was Lee Denson, one of Elvis’ first friends after the Presley family moved from Tupelo, Mississippi to Memphis in 1948, when Elvis was 13. It was Lee, two years older, who taught Elvis his first guitar chords. Denson went on to have a career as a rockabilly singer, with some success but no hits. In 1957 he and Elvis played together on stage for the first and last time, at a charity concert.

In 1961 Denson had a rare get-together with his old friend, during which he played “Miracle Of The Rosary”, which he had recorded the previous year, to Elvis. They never met again. It took Presley ten years before he recorded the song; what prompted him to do it at that time seems unknown. In the interim, Denson had recorded the song himself. Now, in 1971, Elvis associate Red West phoned Denson to announce that “Miracle Of The Rosary” would be on Presley’s LP. Denson received royalties from the song for the rest of his life. “Miracle of the Rosary” is truly miraculous in its own way, in the fact that it was published at all. Doubly so that it was recorded by Elvis – the only song about the Rosary to ever be recorded by a major artist and released on a major label.

The kicker is: Lee Denson was the son of a minister at the Pentecostal church which the Presley family attended. In fact, while he always remained a believer, he was not a particularly good Christian — until one day in the late 1950s, Denson felt what he later described as “a powerful inner force” surging through his body. He and his wife Mary were unnerved by the experiences and somehow decided to pray the Rosary. The following day they went to Mass, and in short order converted to Catholicism. “Miracle Of The Rosary” is a testament of that conversion.

Denson died on November 6, 2007 at the age of 75. His funeral Mass was celebrated in Memphis’ Catholic church of St Teresa. His remains were interred at the city’s Calvary Cemetery — on Elvis Presley Boulevard. On his gravestone a final message is engraved: “Thanks once again for the Miracle of the Rosary”.

In the final stages of World War II, at about 8:15 AM of August 6, 1945, an American Boeing B-29 Super-fortress bomber christened Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb in history over Hiroshima in Japan. The atomic blast generated an unimaginable ground heat of 6,000° C (10,832° F) and a tremendous wind at the sonic speed of 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) per second. Everything within a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) radius of the hypocenter was annihilated, instantly killing 140,000 people.
Concrete buildings collapsed to pieces and broken glass flew as far as 16 kilometers (9.94 miles) away. The atomic radiation generated by the bomb was so unbelievably strong that many of those outside of the range who were exposed to it lost all bodily functions, their cells underwent apoptosis – a kind of cellular suicide, and died within days. Between the blast itself, the resulting fires throughout the city and the radiation burns, some estimate that 200,000 citizens of Hiroshima lost their lives.
Yet, in the midst of burned bodies, charred skeletons, and structural damage, just eight blocks from ground zero (exactly 1 kilometer or 6/10 of a mile), a two story Catholic presbytery miraculously remained intact… When an investigation was made, it was discovered that there survived a community of eight German Jesuit priests who were all found unscathed, with only a few minor injuries.” (Catholic Herald). Among the survivors were Jesuit priests named Hugo Lassalle, Hubert Schiffer, Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Paul Ruge and Hubert Cieslik.
Father Hubert Schiffer who headed the community was…30 years old when the atomic bomb exploded at Hiroshima and lived another 33 years in good health to tell the miracle. The same is said of the other seven priests of the community. Aside from some slight surface abrasions or scratches, they all lived out their days in full health with no radiation sickness, no loss of hearing, or any other visible long term defects or cancer from radiation. Father Schiffer was thoroughly examined and questioned by more than 200 scientists who were unable to explain how he and his companions had survived the atomic blast. He attributed the miracle to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He declared: “I was in the middle of the atomic explosion and I am still here alive and well. I was not struck down by its destruction.” Furthermore, for several years hundreds of experts and investigators continued to study and investigate the scientific reasons as to why the presbytery house was not affected, and when asked, Father Schiffer remarked each time: “We believe that we survived because we were living the Message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that home.”
To put into proper scientific perspective just how bewildering this survival tale is, consider the expert testimony of Dr. Stephen Rinehart, a nuclear physicist with the U.S. Department of Defense. He said, ‘Their residence should…have been utterly destroyed (temp; 2000 F and air blast pressures; 100 psi)…Unreinforced masonry or brick walls (representative of commercial construction) are destroyed at 3 psi, which will also cause car damage and burst windows. At 10 psi, a human will experience severe lung and heart damage, burst eardrums and at 20 psi your limbs can be blown off. Your head will be blown off by 40 psi and no residential or unreinforced commercial construction would be left standing. At 80 psi even reinforced concrete is heavily damaged and no human would be alive because your skull would be crushed. All the cotton clothes would be on fire at 350 F (probably at 275 F) and your lungs would be inoperative within a minute breathing air (even for a few seconds) at these temperatures.
The expected outcome described by this expert, in fact, perfectly describes what occurred in the area immediately surrounding the Jesuit rectory. One of the survivors, Paul Ruge, said years later in his recollection of the event that after the nuclear blast occurred, “He opened his eyes and found himself laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground. The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong”…’There are no physical laws to explain why the Jesuits were untouched in the Hiroshima air blast…All who were at this range from the epicenter should have received enough radiation to be dead within at most a matter of minutes if nothing else happened to them. There is no known way to design a uranium-235 atomic bomb, which could leave such a large discrete area intact while destroying everything around it immediately outside the fireball . . .”From a scientific viewpoint, what happened to those Jesuits at Hiroshima still defies all human logic from the laws of physics as understood today (or at any time in the future). It must be concluded that some other (external) force was present whose power and/or capability to transform energy and matter as it relates to humans is beyond current comprehension.”

“Back in 1997, I had auditioned for a role that every big name in Hollywood wanted. A role in Terrance Malick’s upcoming role The Thin Red Line. The odds were against me, but I at least got a meeting with Malick. “I pulled up to his house for my 6:00 meeting, but I couldn’t leave the car. I was plagued by self-doubt. I had made a decision: if this didn’t pan out—if this didn’t go through–I was going to have to hang it up. “I didn’t want to just drift along the rest of my life wondering if I was ever going to work consistently as an actor. “It is 6 pm, I was still in the car, I believe in my heart that the next 10 minutes changed my life forever. In my mind, I was a guy from Mount Vernon, Washington. I wanted to be a basketball player. What the heck was I doing outside of Terrance Malick’s house? “I’m an emotional mess, self-sabotage at full-fury. So I started to pray the rosary. “It is 6:05 pm, and I’m still in the middle of the 4th Glorious Mystery. “You see, six months earlier, my manager, who is a bit like a Catholic mystic, said that I should start praying the rosary on a daily basis. My wife, Kerri, taught me how to pray it. “So following orders, I borrowed her grandmother’s rosary. It was a precious antique heirloom. I started running them through my fingers and praying, without even really knowing the mysteries. “I’m already 5 minutes late for this meeting with the most sought-after director in Hollywood, and I’ve not finished the decade, so I decided to press on. “Hail Mary, full of grace…Hail Mary, full of grace…

“When I finally finished the ‘Hail, Holy Queen,’ it is 6:10 pm. I jump out of the car, dash up to the house, but I realize I’ve got rosary beads in my hand. I knew if put them in my pocket, I would start fiddling around with them in front of the director, so I turned hills and raced back to the car to dispose of those beads. “I opened the car door and made a deliberate move to drop off this rosary, when I get a feeling, right here in my heart that I should take this rosary with me. “This was not the first time I experienced this sensation. The first time I had this experience, I was 19 years old in a theater in Mount Vernon, Washington. “The movie had ended, and out there in the darkness, befriended only by my basketball in the adjacent seat, I had a sensation right here in my heart that made me think that I was supposed to be an actor. That this is what God crafted me for–that this is what he wanted of me. “You could say it was my ‘personal annunciation.’ A very deep awareness of my vocation. So reluctantly, I went forward. “My rational sense intervened. I knew nothing about acting, no agents, no managers. Hell, I can’t even memorize to save my life, as you can see. But I had this conviction. I had a charge.

“So back on the curb in front of Terrance Malick’s house—I decided to take this rosary with me and make my way to the front door. “This little maid answers the bell, and on her neck is a miraculous medal. “So I say, ‘Oh, you’re Catholic!’ “She says, ‘No, I’m not, I’m Episcopalian. Come on in.’ “So this maid takes me in and she shows me the house. It’s a beautiful Spanish hacienda. And as we’re admiring the ceiling while the woman is in mid-sentence, I get this sensation in my chest again, but stronger than I had ever experienced. “And without thinking, I reached for the rosary in my pocket, and I say, ‘This is for you, ma’am.’ “She’s now startled, she said, ‘Why did you do that?’ “Tears are now welling up in her eyes, and I say, ‘I don’t know.’ “She says, ‘O My God! The woman who gave me this medal—the miraculous medal of the virgin Mary—also gave me a rosary she got from Mother Teresa. But I lost it, and I prayed this morning that God would send me another one. Then you walk in.’ “This woman is now collapsing in tears. I’m shell-shocked. There’s a rosary in between us and in walks the director, Terrance Malick, when he started with, ‘Honey, what’s wrong?’ “And it occurs to me: ‘This ain’t the maid! This is Terrance Malick’s wife!’ “And I thought, ‘Better book a return flight back to Mount Vernon, pal!’ “When I got home, I told my wife, ‘Honey, I’ve got some good news, and I’ve got some bad news. The good news is, I may get The Thin Red Line, the bad news is granny’s rosary is gone.’ “That rosary and I believed that the intercession of Our Lady led to the first major role of my career in The Thin Red Line. We would be nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

"Cut to the spring of 2000, I was offered the role as Edmond Dantès, in the Count of Monte Cristo. It was a new adaptation of the Dumas Classic. “This was the first time I had to carry a film on my own, and here I was at the pinnacle of what I long wanted to achieve, but I had no peace. “I’m having Masses said for this movie, and I’m trying to pray, but like you, I was never sure if my prayers were landing. “An amazing thing happened: we were set to shoot a pivotal scene in the film in this grand house in Malta. It is the moment when the count must decide whether he will remain with the love of his life, or leave her to pursue his revenge. “And I look up to the ceiling as I’m weighing this decision. In reality, I’m looking up at nothing. There’s nothing up there except white plaster.

“Then the director, Kevin Reynolds, who is a Baptist from Texas, pulls me aside and says, ‘let me show you what you’ll be looking at. I found something down the hall that I think will work for the film.’ “So he takes me into the room, about 10 doors away, and he points to the ceiling. “Well, I’m in shock. I’m just standing there slack-jawed because there, on the ceiling, is a fresco of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. “Now Kevin Reynolds doesn’t know a thing about Mary or the Catholic Church, so I said, ‘Do you have any idea what that is?’ “And in a Texas draw he says, “Yep.” And leaves the room.

“I was hesitant to add to that ‘yep,’ for fear that he would take that shot out of the movie, so I just kept my mouth shut. “But it was a sign for me—a sign that the Lord and his Blessed Mother were with me. Through all my trials, Mary had been there all along, leading me by the hand, guiding me toward her son, and my vocation. “And if you saw The Count of Monte Cristo, you know that that shot stayed in the film, and I’m proud to say that I shared some screen time with the Mother of God.”