The Battle of Lepanto and the Rosary

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte.

Oct. 7 marked the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which was originally known as Our Lady of Victory. The date commemorates the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, when the armies of the Christian west, united as the Holy League under King Philip II of Spain and Pope (later St.) Pius V, defeated the Ottoman Turks who would otherwise have conquered and blotted out all of Christianity from Europe.

The pairing of the titles Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary highlights an important truth of our faith: It is through the power and prayers of the rosary that God and His handmaid, the Blessed Virgin Mary, will triumph over evil. After the victory at Lepanto, the Venetian Senate had a picture painted to commemorate the battle along with these words, “Non virtus, non arma, non duces, sed Maria Rosarii, victors nos fecit” (“Not valor, not weapons, not leaders, but Our Lady of the Rosary made us victors”).

During the crisis that led to the battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V knew the martial potency of this devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The pope knew that they were fighting a holy war, that it was souls at stake as well as lives, and they needed prayers and spiritual weapons if Christendom was to be saved.

As the fleet of the Holy League set out to make history, every Christian soldier was equipped with a rosary. Throughout Europe, the rosary was being prayed by the faithful for the success of the Christian army, and before any ship sailed forth, each one was blessed by the papal nuncio. Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans and Capuchins accompanied the entire fleet, and Mass was celebrated on the deck of each ship before the battle was joined.

Though heavily outnumbered by the Turks, it was by a miraculous shifting of the wind, perhaps the very breath of the Virgin Mary, that the winning advantage was given to the Christian fleet and Europe was saved.

In 1911, the British writer G.K. Chesterton first published his poem “Lepanto.” Though Chesterton was not yet Catholic when he wrote it, the theme of spiritual warfare and the powerful intercession of the pope in Rome echoes throughout the piece. He even acknowledges how the Church was being attacked from within as well as from without, as the heresies of Luther and Calvin were at that time sweeping through northern Europe. “And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,/ And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,/ And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,/ But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.”

Though both Chesterton and his poem have fallen into obscurity in the modern era, it remains a true masterpiece of English literature and is made all the more powerful for the spiritual nature and historical significance of its subject matter. The beauty of rhyme and meter, the evocative imagery, and the deft use of language brings to life this scene of history in a way that few modern writers could manage.

The poem focuses primarily on the figure of Don John of Austria, the commander chosen by Pope Pius V to lead the Christian fleet and who is depicted by Chesterton as the last true Crusader and Christian knight. “And the pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,/ And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross… Where risen from a doubtful seat and half-attainted stall/ The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall.” As the monarchs of Europe were caught up in their own politics and rivalries, few were willing to heed the pope’s call and unite against a common threat. But Don John, half-brother to King Philip II and already a battle-tested commander at the young age of 24, rallied to the Holy Father and was given command. During the battle, he wore a relic that contained a fragment of the True Cross, which had been given to him by the pope. Young and dashing, but also devout and faithful, Don John is a figure to be admired by all.

It’s reported that at the very same hour that the conflict ended, Pope Pius V had a vision of the battle from his room in Rome. The date and time were marked by those present, as the pope suddenly stopped the work he was doing and went to the window and looked east, then declared that they must go and give thanks for the great victory that had been won. News of the battle did not reach Rome for more than 15 days after this. “The pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,/ (Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)/ The hidden room in a man’s house where God sits all the year,/ The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear./ He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea/ The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery.”

In an essay, Chesterton later wrote of Don John, “Europe, in the age in which he lived, was, as it is now, in one of its recurring periods of division and disease.”

The same could be said of our own age, and it is one of the reasons that it is so important to remember events such as the Battle of Lepanto and works of art such as Chesterton’s that celebrate it. Times may be dark, the enemies of this world may seem overwhelming, but Christian virtue and heroism are never dead. In the rosary, we’ve been given the ultimate weapon to fight evil, and the Battle of Lepanto is a testament to the power of prayer.

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Whose Immaculate Heart will triumph, will strengthen us and give us victory in the end.