Today marks the freeing of Europe from the threat of the fleet of the Ottoman Turks. They began gathering a huge armada to invade Italy. Don John of Austria sought an alliance of Eurpean princes to defend Christendom, meanwhile Pope commanded European Catholics to ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin by praying the Rosary. Apart from having a significantly smaller fleet the Holy League was better armed, and was helped by a revolt of Christian slaves on the Ottoman fleet.
In Catholic countries the victory was ascribed to Our Lady, and the Rosary.
8 comments:
In my Dominican parish here in Los Angeles, there's a stained-glass window depicting Lepanto. The church was built in the 1920s, and I doubt Lepanto would be considered acceptable fare today, for the usual tedious reasons.
There is a nice woodcut illustration of the Chesterton poem on the victory.
Text of Chesterton's Lepanto
The latest attack, although quite different in form, is as dangerous as any of the earlier ones, and we should be praying to Our Lady again.
I particularly treasured and relished the Mass today in the EF form.
I'm glad in former days they had the GUTS to be unapologetic for instituting a commemoration in honor of celebrating a victory over the Mohammedans, One has to wonder whether the PC crowd that inhabits the Vatican would have the guts to do so today.
It is far from fair to describe the Vatican as inhabited by a PC crowd. The Pope himself quoted the emperor of Constantinople on this very subject and look at the uproar there was over that.
It would not be productive to start another Crusade however much one might like to make Islam history. It would be more useful to start praying for their conversion, though that would possibly cause even more uproar.
Bill, Henry, Jacobi, Gem,
Do you love your Muslim neighbour? (Your comments do not give me the impression that you do.)
Let me ask a question that you have probably never thought about. Would the Church in Turkey be happy to see the celebrations of Lepanto referred to by Gem?
Here is a related question. If the Holy Father had known what would happen after his Regensburg address, would he have quoted Manuel Palaiologos in the way he did? My understanding of his subsequent comments is that he would not.
Let us get our priorities right. Christian ethics, and the needs of the Church in the present, are more important than celebrating historical triumphs - often an exercise in the invention of tradition.
NB This comment has nothing to do with multiculturalism, or relativism, or any of the other bugbears which inevitably provoke furious ranting.
Do John of Austria has set his people free.
Do I love my Muslim neighbour? One can try, though in my experience they do not make it easy. But love the heretic, hate the heresy. Islam is an evil doctrine with evil texts.
Post a Comment