``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
Feast of the Most Holy Rosary
(Our Lady of Victory)
Ever since
Islam's inception in the early 7th century, its practitioners have been
battling against Christians. And from the 11th century on, Muslim Turks
warred against the Christian Byzantine Empire, chipping away at it
until they replaced it with an empire of their own -- the Ottoman
Empire. Always -- always --
seeking to conquer, they eventually turned their attention to Crete and
Cyprus, which were under Venetian rule, and were very strategic assets
in terms of trade. Though there was a peace treaty between the Ottomans
and Venice, a Portuguese Jewish financier, Joseph Nasi,1
talked his friend, the
Sultan, into war, hoping that he himself would be crowned King of
Cyprus when it was over.
So, in 1570, around 400 Ottoman ships landed in Cyprus. The Venetians
were radically outnumbered, so they surrendered after being told they
could leave peacefully. But the Muslims lied, and went on to slaughter
20,000 people, taking women and little boys as slaves. The Christian
commander, Marcantonio Bragadin, was killed in the most vile manner:
[T]he Turk
compelled his noble prisoner [Bragadin] to carry loads of earth upon
his shoulders for the repair of the walls, and to kiss his feet each
time he passed before him; and not yet satisfied with the indignities
he heaped upon him, he had him hoisted up aloft on the yard-arm of a
vessel in the harbour, where he kept him exposed for hours to the gaze
and scoff of the infidels, and then suddenly plungediiim into the sea.
At last, after trampling him under foot, he doomed him to be flayed
alive in the public square. The indomitable commander, who united in
himself the resolute courage of a chivalrous soldier with the
supernatural patience of a Christian martyr, amidst his untold agonies
betrayed not a sign of pain, uttered not a murmur or a complaint
against his torturers, but, as they stripped the skin from his
quivering flesh, calmly prayed and recited aloud from time to time
verses from the Miserere and other Psalms. When the Christians in the
crowd heard him breathe the words, Domine
, in manus tuas commendo spirittm meum, they thought he was
rendering up his life to God; but tnere followed in tender accents, —
as if to show Whose sufferings in that hour of agony were most present
to his thoughts, and Whose meek and loving spirit then filled his
inflexible and dauntless soul, — Pater,
dimitte illis; non enim sciunt quid faciunt; and with this
prayer for mercy on his tormentors the brave soldier of Christ passed
to receive the martyr’s palm. But Turkish malice was not even yet
exhausted. Mustapha caused the brave man’s body to be cut into four
quarters, and each to be attached to the muzzle of the largest guns.
His skin was stuffed with straw, and, together with a representation of
our Divine Lord in His adorable Passion, paraded through the camp and
through the town fastened on the back of a cow. Finally, he despatched
both figures as trophies to the Sultan his master, with the head of
Bragadino and those of the two murdered commanders. At Constantinople
the skin of the heroic martyr was hung up as a spectacle for the
Christian galley-slaves.2
In response to this barbarity, Pope Pius V formed what became known as
"The Holy League" -- an army of Italians, Spaniards,3 and
Hapsburg subjects
whom he put under the command of Don John of Austria, the half-brother
of Philip II of Spain, and the illegitimate son of the Holy Roman
Emperor, Charles V.4
While the Holy League was preparing itself for battle, the Pope asked
Catholics to pray the Rosary and ask Our Lady of Victory to come to the
aid of her people. The people did. And she did: on October 7, the
Muslim and Christian
naval forces met up in the Gulf of Patras, a branch of the Ionian Sea
in Western Greece, near the Greek City of Nafpaktos, which the
Venetians called "Lepanto."
The Battle of
Lepanto. Click to enlarge.
The battle began around noon on October 7, 1571, and when it did, the
wind was working against the Christians' ships. But the wind suddenly
shifted, and by that evening, it was all over. Within a few hours, the
Christians soundly defeated the Muslims, killing 30,000 of them (7,500
Christians were lost), liberating thousands of Christian slaves, and
destroying 117 of the Muslims' 189 galley ships and about a quarter of
their galiot ships. 10,000 Muslims were taken prisoner.
All of October is especially devoted to the Holy Rosary, but because of
the Christian victory at Lepanto, Pope Pius V ordered that the first
Sunday of October be set aside especially to appreciate the devotion
and to honor the Blessed Virgin as Our Lady of Victory.
He also bestowed upon Mary the title of Auxilium Christianorum (Help of
Christians), adding it to the Litany of
Loreto. Clement XI extended the feast to the entire Church, and
Pius X later fixed its celebration on October 7, which is when we
celebrate it today -- the Rosary as a spiritual
weapon that begs Our Lady of Victory to act as the Help of
Christians. Consider these words from Pope Leo XIII's Supremi Apostolatus Officio:
This devotion,
so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven, has never
shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has
seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy spread abroad, or by
an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies.
Ancient and modern history and the more sacred annals of the Church
bear witness to public and private supplications addressed to the
Mother of God, to the help she has granted in return, and to the peace
and tranquillity which she had obtained from God. Hence her illustrious
titles of helper, consoler, mighty in war, victorious, and
peace-giver. And amongst these is specially to be commemorated
that familiar title derived from the Rosary by which the signal
benefits she has gained for the whole of Christendom have been solemnly
perpetuated. There is none among you, venerable brethren, who will not
remember how great trouble and grief God's Holy Church suffered from
the Albigensian heretics, who sprung from the sect of the later
Manicheans, and who filled the South of France and other portions of
the Latin world with their pernicious errors, and carrying everywhere
the terror of their arms, strove far and wide to rule by massacre and
ruin. Our merciful God, as you know, raised up against these most
direful enemies a most holy man, the illustrious parent and founder of
the Dominican Order. Great in the integrity of his doctrine, in his
example of virtue, and by his apostolic labours, he proceeded
undauntedly to attack the enemies of the Catholic Church, not by force
of arms; but trusting wholly to that devotion which he was the first to
institute under the name of the Holy Rosary, which was disseminated
through the length and breadth of the earth by him and his pupils.
Guided, in fact, by divine inspiration and grace, he foresaw that this
devotion, like a most powerful warlike weapon, would be the means of
putting the enemy to flight, and of confounding their audacity and mad
impiety. Such was indeed its result. Thanks to this new method of
prayer-when adopted and properly carried out as instituted by the Holy
Father St. Dominic-piety, faith, and union began to return, and the
projects and devices of the heretics to fall to pieces. Many wanderers
also returned to the way of salvation, and the wrath of the impious was
restrained by the arms of those Catholics who had determined to repel
their violence.
The efficacy and power of this devotion was also wondrously exhibited
in the sixteenth century, when the vast forces of the Turks threatened
to impose on nearly the whole of Europe the yoke of superstition and
barbarism. At that time the Supreme Pontiff, St. Pius V., after rousing
the sentiment of a common defence among all the Christian princes,
strove, above all, with the greatest zeal, to obtain for Christendom
the favour of the most powerful Mother of God. So noble an example
offered to heaven and earth in those times rallied around him all the
minds and hearts of the age. And thus Christ's faithful warriors,
prepared to sacrifice their life and blood for the salvation of their
faith and their country, proceeded undauntedly to meet their foe near
the Gulf of Corinth, while those who were unable to take part formed a
pious band of supplicants, who called on Mary, and unitedly saluted her
again and again in the words of the Rosary, imploring her to grant the
victory to their companions engaged in battle. Our Sovereign Lady did
grant her aid; for in the naval battle by the Echinades Islands, the
Christian fleet gained a magnificent victory, with no great loss to
itself, in which the enemy were routed with great slaughter. And it was
to preserve the memory of this great boon thus granted, that the same
Most Holy Pontiff desired that a feast in honour of Our Lady of
Victories should celebrate the anniversary of so memorable a struggle,
the feast which Gregory XIII. dedicated under the title of "The Holy
Rosary." Similarly, important successes were in the last century gained
over the Turks at Temeswar, in Pannonia, and at Corfu; and in both
cases these engagements coincided with feasts of the Blessed Virgin and
with the conclusion of public devotions of the Rosary. And this led our
predecessor, Clement XL, in his gratitude, to decree that the Blessed
Mother of God should every year be especially honoured in her Rosary by
the whole Church.
Finally, note
this feast's similarity to the Feast
of the Most Holy Name of Mary
on September 12, when the Christian victory over Muslims at the Battle
of Vienna is remembered -- the battle that finally ended Muslims'
attempts to overtake Europe (well, until mass migration came about in
spite of its being against the will of the people...)
Customs
Some may prepare for this feast by praying a Novena to Our Lady of
Victory beginning on September 28 and ending on October 6. As to
the feast itself, it's a given that today is a good day, as is every
day, to pray the Rosary! And it's a
good day, too, to pray the Litany of Our Lady of
Victory.
As to music for this feast, Jacobus de Kerle wrote Cantio octo vocum de sacro foedere contra
Turcas (Song in Eight Voices on the Holy League Against the
Turks) to commemorate the Battle of Lepanto:
And there is this hymn to the Queen of the Holy Rosary that is a good
fit for the day as well:
O Queen of the
Holy Rosary,
O bless us as we pray,
And offer thee our roses
In garlands day by day,
While from our Father's garden,
With loving hearts and bold,
We gather to thine honour
Buds white and red and gold.
O Queen of the Holy Rosary,
Each myst'ry blends with thine
The sacred life of Jesus
In ev'ry step divine,
Thy soul was His fair garden,
Thy virgin breast His throne,
Thy thoughts His faithful mirror,
Reflecting Him alone.
O Queen of the Holy Rosary,
We share thy joy and pain,
And long to see the glory
Of Christ's triumphant reign.
Oh, teach us holy Mary,
To live each mystery,
And gain by patient suff'ring
The glory won by thee.
As to entertainments for the day, G. K. Chesterton wrote a
poem, Lepanto, about this Christian victory. You can read it here: Lepanto (pdf).
And to keep your children busy, you could arrange for them to make a
"rosary" by stringing popcorn, in the same way one strings popcorn to
decorate a Christmas tree. You'll need a long needle, heavy thread (or
fishing line), plain popped popcorn (if it's popped a day ahead, it
will be easier to string), a Cross shape cut from a piece of
bread (a pumpernickel bread would be nice color-wise), and whatever
you'd like to use for the Pater beads (dried apricots would work). Your
child could eat it later, or he could take it outside and hang it on a
tree for the birds and squirrels.
Or, if you prefer, you can print out this pdf of Rosary parts that your
child can color in, cut out, and glue on to a piece of paper to make a
"rosary." He would draw the rosary chain to "connect" the pieces: Rosary Craft (pdf)
--- While we're on the topic of children and rosaries, if your child is
able to read, make sure he has the Rosary's prayers in print so he
truly understands the words and is better able to remember them. I'm
sure you don't want your kids thinking the Ave goes "Hail Mary, full of
grapes," or that the Pater's text includes the line, "Harold be Thy
name."
As for treats for the day, Spain makes Lepanto brandy -- a brandy
that's aged for over a decade in oak casks once used for sherry,
resulting in a beverage described as redolent of raisins, figs and oak
wood.
Those who are able might want to make a pilgrimage
to Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, New York, the result of
a dream had by Father Nelson Baker. His parish church -- dedicated to
St. Patrick -- suffered a fire, but instead of rebuilding the church as
it was, he was inspired to build a magnificent church on par with those
of Europe, and to dedicate it to his patroness, Our Lady of Victory. He
rallied the people, and made his dream come true: in just 5 years, the
church -- now a basilica -- was built and paid for. And it is splendid.
You can take a 3D tour here: https://mpembed.com/show/?m=DecVXKqyS7P&mpu=43&mpv=1
Those in Italy might
consider a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Virgin
of the Rosary of Pompei, which has an interesting history. A lawyer
named Bartolo Longo, a Satanic priest who ridiculed Christianity,
experienced a miraculous conversion through the influence of a saintly
Dominican priest. Repenting of his ways, taking the Blessed Virgin as
his patron, and praying her Rosary as his great spiritual weapon, he
devoted himself to penance and making reparation for the damage he'd
caused in his former life. He moved his law practice to Pompei -- the
city, spelled in English as "Pompeii", which was buried by Mt.
Vesuvius in A.D. 79. While there, he decided that the best thing he
could do was
to spread the practice of praying the Rosary, and to that end, he
started a Confraternity of the Rosary, spread around Rosary pamphlets,
and rallied locals to help him restore an old, dilapidated chapel in
the area.
He looked for ways to beautify the building, and a nun in Naples
offered him a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary with St. Dominic and
St. Rose. He found the painting to be rather hideous, later writing,
Alas! No sooner
did my eyes fall on it than my heart stopped. Not only was the picture
old and wormeaten, but the face of the Madonna, instead of being that
of a Virgin all sweetness, holiness and grace, seemed rather that of
some course, rough woman of the people.
— Who ever painted that picture? Mercy on us! — I could not
prevent myself from exclaiming, with a tone of voice half way between
fright and surprise. I felt in my heart that the poor Pompeians would
find great difficulty in experiencing any sort of devotional influence
and feeling any kind of love for the Rosary with such a picture before
them.
To the deformity and unpleasantness of the face must be added
the fact that a full palm of canvass was missing directly above the
head. The mantle was cracked, and time and wormeaten, and in many
places the colors had fallen off altogether because of the cracks.
Nothing can be said of the hideousness of the other figures. Saint
Dominic, on the right, more than a saint, looked like a street idiot;
to the left was a Saint Rosa, with a fat, rough, vulgar face, who
looked exactly like a country-girl crowned with roses.5
But he didn't want to offend the nun, and he had nothing else, so he
took the painting, fixing it so it looked a little nicer and so that
St.
Rose became St. Catherine of Siena. The image was placed in the
restored chapel in 1875.
Click to enlarge
And miracles began to happen -- the first being the cure of a young
girl who suffered from a severe case of epilepsy. Hundreds of miracles
followed! Word spread, and pilgrims came, so plans for a larger church
were put into action, with 300 locals pledging a penny a month to build
it. The cornerstone for new church was laid on May 8, the church was
1876, consecrated in 1891, and it was enlarged and raised to the level
of
a basilica in 1939. The miraculous image was officially coronated by
Pope Paul VI in 1965.
After the death of Bartolo Longo -- the "Apostle of the Rosary" -- he
was declared a "servant of God" and was later beatified. And ever since
the miracles that happen at Pompei began, many, especially Italians,
invoke Our Lady as "the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii"
or simply as "Our Lady of Pompeii." Padre Pio had a great devotion to
Our Lady of Pompeii, making many pilgrimages to her shrine. On his
deathbed, he asked that a rose given to him by a devotee be taken to
the basilica and offered to Our Lady by placing it in front of her
miraculous image. It remains there, incorrupt, to this day.
Note that a practice related to Our Lady of Pompeii is the praying of
the "Supplica" -- a Solemn Petition of Prayer to Our Lady of Pompeii
-- at noon on May 8 (the date the cornerstone of the Basilica at
Pompeii was put down) and at noon on the first Sunday of October
(the original date of the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary). This prayer
-- link below -- was written by Bartolo Longo,
and Pope Leo XIII granted an indulgence to all who prayed it on the
above dates.
Of interest, too, in Italy is an event which takes place not today, but
every three years, in August: in Spelonga, in the Marche region --
about 100 miles northeast of Rome -- the Battle of Lepanto is
remembered in a unique way in a days-long feast they call "la Festa
Bella." At noon on the first day of the Festa Bella, the men gather in
front of the Church of St. Agatha while the bells peal wildly. The
women bring food they've prepared, and feed the men who then go off to
the forest for three days. While in the forest, they cut down a large
tree, clean it of its branches, and level the bottom so they can more
easily drag it by hand back into town. The hewn tree arrives at the
town square, greeted by the sound of the bells wildly pealing once
again. Then the tree is further prepared, and then hoisted to act as a
ship's mast, and at the top of it they hang a Turkish flag -- a copy of
a seized original which came from the Battle of Lepanto and which is
now kept in the church. Around the mast, the shape of a great ship is
built up out of fir branches, and fir branches are used all over the
town as decoration.
Readings
From "The Liturgical Year"
by Dom Prosper Gueranger
It is customary with men of the world to balance their accounts at the
end of the year, and ascertain their profits. The Church is now
preparing to do the same. We shall soon see her solemnly numbering her
elect, taking an inventory of their holy relics, visiting the tombs of
those who sleep in the Lord, and counting the sanctuaries, both old and
new, that have been consecrated to her divine Spouse. But today's
reckoning is a more solemn one, the profits more considerable: she
opens her balance-sheet with the gain accruing to our Lady from the
mysteries which compose the Cycle. Christmas, the Cross, the triumph of
Jesus, these produce the holiness of us all; but before and above all,
the holiness of Mary. The diadem which the Church thus offers first to
the august Sovereign of the world, is rightly composed of the triple
crown of these sanctifying mysteries, the causes of her joy, of her
sorrow, and of her glory. The joyful mysteries recall the Annunciation,
the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, Mary's Purification, and the
Finding of our Lord in the Temple. The Sorrowful mysteries bring before
us the Agony of our blessed Lord, his being scourged, and crowned with
thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion. While, in the
glorious mysteries, we contemplate the Resurrection and Ascension of
our Saviour, Pentecost, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Mother
of God. Such is Mary's Rosary; a new and fruitful vine, which began to
blossom at Gabriel's salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a
link between earth and heaven.
In its present form, the Rosary was made known to the world by St.
Dominic at the time of the struggles with the Albigensians, that social
war of such ill-omen for the Church. The Rosary was then of more avail
than armed forces against the power of Satan; it is now the Church's
last resource. It would seem that, the ancient forms of social prayer
being no longer relished by the people, the Holy Spirit has willed by
this easy and ready summary of the Liturgy to maintain, in the isolated
devotion of these unhappy times, the essential of that life of prayer,
faith, and Christian virtue, which the public celebration of the Divine
Office formerly kept up among the nations. Before the thirteenth
century, popular piety was already familiar with what was called the
psalter of the laity, that is, the Angelical Salutation repeated one
hundred and fifty times; it was the distribution of these Hail Marys
into decades, each devoted to the consideration of a particular
mystery, that constituted the Rosary. Suchi was the divine expedient,
simple as the Eternal Wisdom that oonceived it, and far-reaching in its
effects; for while it led wandering man to the Queen of mercy, it
obviated ignorance which is the food of heresy, and taught him to find
once more " the paths consecrated by the Blood of the Man-God, and by
the "tears of his Mother."
Thus speaks the great Pontiff who, in the universal sorrow of these
days, has again pointed out the means of salvation more than once
experienced by our fathers. Leo XIII., in his Encyclicals, has
consecrated the present month to this devotion so dear to heaven; he
has honoured our Lady in her Litanies with a new title, Queen of the
most holy Rosary; and he has given the final development to tbe
solemnity of this day, by raising it to the rank of a second class
Feast, and by enriching it with a proper Office explaining its
permanent object. Besides all this, the Feast is a memorial of glorious
victories, which do honour to the Christian name.
Soliman II, the greatest of the Sultans, taking advantage of the
confusion caused in the "West by Luther, had filled the sixteenth
century with terror by his exploits. He left to his son, Selim II, the
prospect of being able at length to carry out the ambition of bis race:
to subjugate Rome and Vienna, the Pope and the Emperor, to the power of
the Crescent. The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part
of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy, when, on tbe 7th
October, 1571, it came into action, in the Gulf of Lepanto, with the
pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice. It was
Sunday; throughout the world the confraternities of the Rosary were
engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, St.
Pius V. watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he
bad chosen, Don John of Austria, against the three hundred vessels of
Islam. The illustrious Pontiff, whose life's work was now completed,
did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph; but he
perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of our Lady of
Victory. His successor, Gregory XIII , altered this title to our Lady
of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new
Feast, authorizing its celebration in those churches which possessed an
altar under that invocation.
A century and a half later, this limited concession was made general.
As Innocent XI, in memory of the deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski, had
extended the Feast of the most holy Name of Mary to the whole Church;
so, in 1716, Clement XI inscribed the Feast of the Rosary on the
universal Calendar, in gratitude for the victory gained by Prince
Eugene at Peterwardein, on the 5th August, under the auspices of Our
Lady of the Snow. This victory was followed by the raising of the siege
of Corfu, and completed a year later by the taking of Belgrade. [Ed. In
1913, the feast was moved to October 7.]
Footnotes:
1 A few notes about Joseph Nasi: He was a
proto-Zionist, wanting to get Jews to move to Palestine or, barring
that, to Cyprus, which he, as said, expected to rule. Before the Battle
of Lepanto, his cousin was convicted of blowing up one of the
Christians' munitions depot in Venice. He also involved himself in the
Eighty Years War: the Jewish Virtual Library entry on the man says, "In
1569 he encouraged the Netherlands' revolt against Spain and a letter
of his, promising Turkish support, was read out at a meeting of the
Calvinist consistory of Amsterdam."
2 From "The Knights of St. John: with the
Battle of Lepanto and Siege of Vienna," by Augusta Theodosia Drane, 1858
3 Among the Spaniards at the Battle of
Lepanto was Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. He was badly injured,
losing the use of his left arm. Four years later, in 1575, he was
captured by the Muslim Barbary Coast pirates who'd been raiding the
coasts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands,
taking Christians as slaves, for many, many long decades. After 5
years, he was ransomed by the Trinitarians, an Order like the Mercedarians who specialized in
ransoming Christian captives.
4 Note that the French are missing from
the Holy League: King Francis I not only did not send men, he sided
with the Turks because they were the enemies of his Hapsburg rivals.
5 "History of the Sanctuary of Pompei,
dedicated to the Most Blessed Virgin of the Rosary," by Bartolo Longo,
1895. This book is available in this site's Catholic Library.
