(314) How Mary's Rosary Changed the Course of World History: The Epic Battle of Lepanto in 1571

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 in protecting the Faith?  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).  Under Suleyman the Magnificent Islam conquered Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and northern Africa.  

       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 were able to resist the Turkish siege of their island of Malta.  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 (the Holy League) 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.  Most had been praying the Rosary for the previous two years.  The future of Western Civilization was at stake!

Don Juan of Austria, the commander of the fleet of the Christian Alliance although still a young man in his twenties.  

That same morning in the Gulf of Patras in the Ionian Sea off of western Greece, the Catholic force of 208 ships, 30,000 soldiers and 50,000 oarsmen  under Don Juan of Austria met the superior Turkish forces of 330 ships (except for fire power and technology), flying the banner of Christ crucified under the standard of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They faced a Turkish armada of 400 ships with 37,000 enslaved rowers.  The Christian seamen were afraid, but very prayerful.  The Radical Muslims  were known to terrorize Christian ships and torture and execute prisoners.

A drawing of one of the ships of the Holy League

The Catholic fleet was sailing east from Messina-Sicily as the Ottoman fleet was sailing west from its base in Lepanto-Greece.  On the night of October 6, with a favorable wind behind him, Ali Pasha moved his fleet westward toward the mouth of the Gulf of Patras to intercept the approaching ships of the Holy League. 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.  For a summary and illustrations go to TRIBUTE TO THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 

Details of the Battle. Robert McMullen gives an excellent summary of the battle in detail in his article, "Remember Lepanto!" at http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_001_Lepanto.html

Don Juan then pulled up anchor and moved to engage the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Lepanto, off the southern coast of Greece. The Turkish fleet, some 330 ships strong, under the command of Ali Pasha, had been reinforced by Uluch Ali, the Bey of Algiers, and head of the notorious band of Moslem corsairs (pirates) that had long terrorized Catholic ships in the Mediterranean.

Don Juan of Austria in battle, at the bow of the ship in hand to hand combat.  Painted by Juan Luna y Novicio.

At dawn, on October 7, 1571, the two fleets met. Don Juan split his fleet into three sections: on the left (north), the Venetians under Agostin Barbarigo; on the right (south), Andrea Doria led the Genoese and Papal galleys; in the center, Don John commanded his flagship and galleys. Santa Cruz, with a force of 35 Spanish and Venetian ships, was held in reserve. He ordered his captains not to fire until “close enough to be splattered with Moslem blood.” The iron rams were removed from the Christian ships, as the plan was for boarding and close quarter fighting. Two of the large Venetian galleasses were towed into position in front of each of the three Christian divisions.

Ali Pasha's fleet approached in a giant crescent formation, and seeing the opposing fleet, he also ordered his fleet split into three divisions. Ali Pasha himself took up the middle position opposite Don Juan, and charged forward to engage Don Juan's ships. The Venetian galleasses opened fire, and almost immediately eight Moslem ships were hit and began to sink. The Catholic galleys, their decks filled with soldiers, opened fire with arquebuses (1) and crossbows as the Moslem ships drew alongside. Ali Pasha's men attempted to board the Catholic ships, but the Spanish soldiers were experienced and well disciplined. Attack after attack was beaten back with deadly shots from their crossbows and arquebuses.

Fresco of the Lepanto battle plan by Antonio Danti

Don Juan ordered the ship of Ali Pasha to be boarded and taken. Two times the boarding attack of the Spanish soldiers was beaten back, but on the third attempt they swarmed over the deck, now awash in blood, and took the ship. Ali Pasha was captured and beheaded on the spot (against the wishes of Don Juan), and the Battle Flag of the Ottoman Fleet came down off the mainmast. The head of the Turkish admiral was spitted on a long pike and raised on high for all the enemy ships to see. The Turkish attack in the center collapsed, and Don Juan sent his ships in pursuit of the retreating Turks, and also turned to aid in the battles raging on his flanks.

On the Catholic right, Uluch Ali and his pirates had broken through Doria's lines and managed to capture the flagship of the Knights of St. John. Santa Cruz, seeing what had happened, came up to the rescue, and Uluch Ali was forced to abandon his prize. The Genoese were in a fight for their lives with the remainder of Uluch Ali's ships, but after Don Juan had broken the enemy fleet in the center, he turned and came to the aid of the Genoese. The Algerian corsairs were finally overcome, and fled for their lives in full retreat.

Admiral Mahomet Sirocco, commanding the Turkish right (on the Catholic left), sailed close to the rocks and shallows on the northern shore of the gulf and was able to outflank Barbarigo's Venetian galleys. Barbarigo's flagship was surrounded by eight enemy galleys, and the Catholic Admiral fell dead from Turkish arrows. His flagship was taken for a time, but aid finally arrived, and Sirocco's flagship galley was sunk. The Turkish admiral was yanked out of the water, and, like Ali Pasha, killed right on the spot.

The engagement lasted, all total, around four to five hours. When it was all over, 8,000 men who had sailed with Don John were dead and another 16,000 wounded. The Turks and Uluch Ali's corsairs had over 25,000 dead, and untold thousands more wounded and captured. Over 12,000 Catholic galley slaves had also been rescued from the Moslems. The Venetian galleasses had taken a heavy toll on the Turkish fleet. It was a major victory for the Holy  League and Christendom.  

When news of the victory finally reached Europe, church bells rang out in cities all across the continent. The Battle of Lepanto was a decisive victory, with only 40 of the over 300 Moslem ships surviving the engagement. The Turkish force of some 75,000 men was in ruins.

Our Lady of Victory. It was clear to all that the Rosary made the difference!  Despite not receiving any news of the victory, Pope Pius V was inspired by a vision 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!