On October 7th 1571 the Catholic Holy League of Europe met the invading naval power of the Ottoman Empire, and over 400 ships and 100,000 men fought on seas of western Greece. In what some historians describe as the most significant naval battle since the birth of Christ, a politically fractured Europe – led by the illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V, Don John of Austria – stood as the last line of hope against a full-scale Ottoman invasion of southern Europe.
The great British rhetorician and apologist G.K. Chesterton penned the poem of Lepanto in honor of the decisive victory. In part:
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain—hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.
Victory won and Europe preserved, the Crusaders lost 7,500 men and 17 ships. The Ottomans suffered their greatest naval loss in over a century with 17-50 ships sunk, 137-177 ships captured, and over 20,000 either wounded or captured. Don John of Austria was able to free an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves.
Though the rosary finds its origin in St. Dominic’s struggles against the Albigensians and is even credited with the victory against them at the Battle of Muret – it was not until the victory at Lepanto that Pope Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. As Don John fought upon the seas of Greece, Pope Pius V had called the Church together to recite the rosary in hopes that Europe would be saved from an Islamic invasion.
The feast was localized primarily to Spain until two military victories in the 18th century convinced Pope Clement XI to declare a universal celebration. The Church saw something undeniable when Catholics were willing to both stand for what was good and just, and humble themselves in prayer and meditation to the mysteries of Christ through the eyes of Mary.
We are all aware of the beauty and grace the Rosary can bring to our personal lives, but often we forget about its power to change human society. As Catholics, our liturgical rythym is shaped by holy days that call us to remember events that memorialize God’s love and action in human history. Remembering these events has a profound effect not only on our own spiritual formation, but also upon our vocation to shape society.
We – like our brave and holy forefathers – must be people of bravery and of the rosary. Financial hardships, global uncertainties, and military conflicts have presented us with a world in constant need of the spiritual and corporeal acts of mercy. And on the defensive, many are aware that the USCCB has created an ad hoc committee for Religious Freedom to combat the deterioration as observed in new HHS mandate and abandonment of DOMA.
To dig deeper into the treasury of the Church’s light on Mary Fr. Peter Cameron’s Mysteries of the Virgin Mary: Living Our Lady’s Graces is an excellent resource. Fr. Cameron’s book is not a theological or historical treatise, but rather a devotional guide that the Catholic reader can turn to throughout the year to understand and meditate on Marian events. Meditating upon Our Lady’s life and saying her rosary,can produce significant change extending far beyond individual hearts and even into the events of nations.
Fr. Cameron will be appearing on EWTN’s literary program Bookmark
on October 16th to discuss the implications of the mysteries of Mary’s life.
Catholics are people of action and prayer. Looking back over the history of the Church we see our fellow brothers and sisters who have acted bravely and prayed piously. Their actions shaped our world. Now we must shape ours.
Comments
Post a Comment
Prior to Battle of Lepanto, Oct. 7th, which depicts the importance of a battle won due to saying the rosary, a Venetian: Marcantonia Bragadino, commander of Venetian army, appealed to the Turks for a truce, after the Turks battered a Venetian island port. The Turkish commander promised Venetians safe passage.Then, took Commander Bragadino prisoner, cut off his nose and ears, put a collar on him, made him crawl like a dog in front of all to see, flayed him alive, stuffed his skin with straw and sent off to Constantinople as a trophy! I personally don’t think this religion is peace loving, even now. What is frightening, is that Western Europe is being heavily populated by the Muslims, and forgetting history? How do we know this? Because they are also forgetting their Christian faith!!!Today, aka Protestants , have forgotten the Rosary which is all biblical, and are welcoming their demise. So is the USA! Please pastors, don’t have amnesia. I haven’t heard one Muslim speak up against Islam here in USof A? They are being careful, so when we are dominated by Muslims, their ears and noses remain.God help us to wake up, see the enemy for who he is, and pray, pray, pray.
Prior to Battle of Lepanto, Oct. 7th, which depicts the importance of a battle won due to saying the rosary, a Venetian: Marcantonia Bragadino, commander of Venetian army, appealed to the Turks for a truce, after the Turks battered a Venetian island port. The Turkish commander promised Venetians safe passage.Then, took Commander Bragadino prisoner, cut off his nose and ears, put a collar on him, made him crawl like a dog in front of all to see, flayed him alive, stuffed his skin with straw and sent off to Constantinople as a trophy! I personally don’t think this religion is peace loving, even now. What is frightening, is that Western Europe is being heavily populated by the Muslims, and forgetting history? How do we know this? Because they are also forgetting their Christian faith!!!Today, aka Protestants , have forgotten the Rosary which is all biblical, and are welcoming their demise. So is the USA! Please pastors, don’t have amnesia. I haven’t heard one Muslim speak up against Islam here in USof A? They are being careful, so when we are dominated by Muslims, their ears and noses remain.God help us to wake up, see the enemy for who he is, and pray, pray, pray…the Rosary, 1xdaily!
@Sara…Europe is being populated by Muslims, because European Christians, like American Christians, are contracepting themselves out of existence. If we want to have a more Christian world, a good place to start is by having more Christians. God bless.
By tradition, the Catholic laity began the practice of saying the rosary in honor of the Blessed Virgin and as an easier imitation of the monastic practice of praying the 150 Psalms. The first historical evidence of the rosary is from Saint Dominic (A.D. 1221), who founded Order of Preachers or Dominicans. A disciple of Saint Dominic, Alain de Roche, instituted the modern form of the rosary. Many Popes, and particularly the Dominicans, have urged the regular recitation of the rosary, which means a crown of roses as a spiritual bouquet given to the Blessed Mother.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen
Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem, vitam aeternam. Amen
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
GLORIA PATRI, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
When the mahommeddan armies tried to take over la Chretiente (as they say in French) by attacks from the west through Spain and from the east (the muslims in the former Yougoslavia are the remnants of these attacks), the Church faced the terrible perspective of persecutions even worse than what it suffered under the Roman Empire. Of course, the Gospel proposes only spiritual weapons as defense against persecution, but can we really hold against her that she adopted very human means to fend off this constant threat? At the battle of Poitiers, Charles Martel stopped the invading armies, and the Church threw her full weight in support of his militaristic line to the extant that she could not disentangle herself, centuries later. In fact the whole history of the Church medieval policies can be explained as a defense against the islamic threat, or an imitation of their practices: the crusades, the forced wholesale conversions (invented by the conquering islamist armies that wiped out christianity in north Africa and Asia), the burnings at the stake (our version of Shariah Law), etc. Thanks God, at Lepanto we gave priority to the spiritual weapon! And that should have had at least as much impact on History as when we aligned ourselves with the military class after POitiers. Yet hardly nobody ever hear of Lepanto! No wonder we are losing the agelong spiritual war from within! Pretty soon, we may have to face a renewed Roman-Empire-styled persecution, not only from the growing muslim demographics, but also from an anti-religious imperialistic State! Better get ready with our rosary…
Great time to say a Rosary a day, starting today on St Doninic’s Feast Day and all week to next Wednesday which is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hail Holy Queen! Hail! Full of Grace!
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.