AMDG
A painting of the fleet
of the commander, Don Juan being blessed by our Lord and His mother, depicted
in the upper left corner.
A 13 Century Struggle. Throughout world history, Mary has nurtured
the faith and brought millions of people to her Son. Many of us know of her role in the
evangelization of Latin America with her message and her miraculous image as
Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531, her role in healing as Our Lady of Lourdes since
1858, her prophetic warnings at Fatima in 1917 calling for repentance and to
pray the rosary for peace. But do you
know that the War on Terror is just another chapter in a 1300 year struggle
between Christian Western Civilization and Radical Islam bent on conversion by
military conquest and Mary had an important role. Mary is the greatest missionary of all time.
The
Quran (2:190-93) states: "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn
them out from where they have turned you out.”
See http://www.clearquran.com/quran-chapter-002.html and
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx. The Quran does say, “Kill the infidels”. That’s us.
Radical Islam takes that literally.
Over the years the Moors conquered much of once Christian Northern
Africa and a large part of Spain. The
Turks (Ottoman Empire) conquered the Holy Land (the Crusades failed) as well as
parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans,
During
those 1300 years, Radical Islam terrified Europe and was well on its way to
conquering all of Europe at least four times.
Charles Martel stopped the advance of the Saracens into France and the
rest of Europe in 732 in the Battle of Tours.
They however occupied much of Spain and Portugal for the next 700
years. Godfrey de Bouillon won a major
victory at Jerusalem in 1099 as part of the First Crusade, but other crucial
battles followed in the second millennium.
The victory at the Battle of Belgrade in 1456 was a big help. Each time, the people appealed to Mary to
save Western Civilization from radical Islam and each time they stopped the
advance in three decisive battles.
Otherwise, Western Europe would be Muslim today.
It was October 7, 1571, only a few years
after the disastrous 1535 Protestant Reformation which Our Lady of Guadalupe
anticipated by her 1531 apparitions to St. Juan Diego in Mexico. The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) had already
conquered much of Hungary (1541-1699). Again
radical Islam threatened under Sultan Selim the Sot. With a fleet of over 400 ships carrying some
30,000 soldiers under the command of Admiral Ali Pasha, they planned to conquer
Malta, plunder, and control the Mediterranean Sea with its trade routes. Since 1565 the Knights of St. John of the tiny
island of Malta were able to resist the Turkish siege. If the Turks would gain control of the
Mediterranean Sea all of Western Europe would be set to fall to radical
Islam.
The people were afraid. It was a time of tension and a battle was
looming. Pope St. Pius V ordered fervent
prayer to Mary with a Rosary Crusade as he formed a Christian alliance of
forces of Spain, Venice, Genoa, Malta, and the tiny Papal fleet to defend
Christendom under the command of the Austrian noble, Don Juan appointed by the
Pope.. At dawn on October 7, the day of
the epic naval battle, Pope St. Pius V himself led a group of the faithful to
the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary and ask Mary for her
intercession. People all over Europe were
praying throughout the day. The future
of Western Civilization was on their shoulders.
Don
Juan of Austria, the commander of the fleet of the Christian Alliance.
That
same morning in the Gulf of Patras in the Ionian Sea off of western Greece, the
Catholic force of 208 ships under Don Juan of Austria met the vastly superior (except
for fire power) Turkish armada of 400 ships with 37,000 enslaved oarsmen,
flying the banner of Christ crucified under the standard of Our Lady of
Guadalupe. The seamen were afraid, but
very prayerful. The Catholic fleet was
sailing east from Messina-Sicily as the Ottoman fleet was sailing west from its
base in Lepanto-Greece. The two opposing
fleets clashed! It was like two armies
fighting from floating platforms, the largest naval battle in history and the
last fought with rowers.
In
the thick of the naval battle, the winds suddenly shifted in favor of the
Europeans and the Turks were routed. It was the first defeat ever for the
dominant Turkish Navy. The alliance took
10,000 prisoners and sunk or captured 167 Turkish ships.
It was clear to all that the rosary made the difference! Despite not receiving any news of the victory, Pope Pius V was inspired to suddenly interrupt his meeting later in the day and exclaim: “Our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which He has just given the Catholic army.”
Later in thanksgiving Pope Gregory XIII established the Feast of the
Holy Rosary or initially Our Lady of Victory on October 7. Europe was somewhat secure for the next
hundred years while the Turks rearmed.
Due to friction in the alliance, they did not follow up on their great
victory by completely destroying the Ottoman fleet. The alliance unraveled in 1573.
MOTHER MARY, WE ASK YOU TO INTERCEDE FOR PEACE
in our world today as a revived radical Islam again threatens us.
BRING
US BACK TO YOUR SON.
Christianity
and Islam both revere Mary as the ideal woman. The Quran devotes an entire chapter to
her. There is a reason that Mary chose
the village of Fatima, which the Moors named after Fatimah, the favorite
daughter of Mohammed. May Mary use these
commonalities and connections to evangelize the Muslims, our brothers, and
bring us world peace
Today
there are predictions that Western Europe will have a Muslim majority by 2050
if present trends continue…….something they could not do by military
conquest. Because of widely practiced
contraception and abortion, the population of Christian Europeans is decreasing
while the population of Muslim immigrants, welcomed to satisfy the labor
shortage in an aging population, is increasing.
Correctly believing that contraception and abortion are immoral, they
multiply.
The
Rosary changed the course of World History in 1571. Imagine what it can do for you today!
