10/07/2025
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.
In the year 1453, Mohammed II conquered Constantinople and took over the ancient cathedral of Hagia Sophia, which, for the Christian East, is as devastating as St. Peter’s Basilica becoming a Mosque. According to some estimates, over 2 million Christians were taken as slaves by the Ottoman Empire in the centuries to follow.
By 1571, the Empire’s fleet had power over the Mediterranean and were poised to push further into the heart of Europe. The existential threat to the Christian West was real.
Pope Pius V responded to the threat by calling for prayer: specifically the Rosary, for victory.
On October 6, 1571 he spent the entire night in prayer with the faithful in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, while 65,000 men prepared for battle by praying the rosary and receiving the Eucharist and a general absolution.
At the hour the battle began, the Holy Father led a rosary procession, and the winds, which had been against the Christian forces, shifted to their advantage, filling their sails and enabling them to outmaneuver their attackers.
This led to a devastatingly lopsided victory that repelled the Ottomans, and saved Europe. It’s no exaggeration to say European history, and world history, would be entirely different were it not for that victory.
The pope, it is said, stood in a trance, seeing a vision of the battle, and came before his people holding up his rosary, exclaiming, “It’s now time to give thanks for the victory that’s been given to us.”
The Venetian Senate wrote to the other States which had taken part in the battle that, “It was not generals, nor battalions, nor arms that brought us victory: but it was Our Lady of the Rosary.”
That's what we commemorate today.
In the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where Pius V led the Church in prayer and is now buried, is my favorite statue of Mary, under the title “Queen of Peace.” She is depicted sitting on a throne, with the gentle power of a queen mother, the King of Kings on her lap, and her hand outstretched as if to say “stop” to all the powers of hell.
Let’s turn to her for peace in the world right now.
