Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, a feast day that was also formerly known as Our Lady of Victory. It has been observed since 1571. During that period, there was serious worry about the possibility that the Turkish Ottoman empire would advance and engulf the Christians in Western Europe.
In that year (1571), Pope Pius V organized a coalition of forces from Spain and smaller Christian kingdoms, republics and military orders, to rescue Christian outposts in Cyprus, particularly the Venetian outpost at Famagusta which, however, surrendered after a long siege on August 1 before the Christian forces set sail. On October 7, 1571, the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, sailed from Messina, Sicily, and met a powerful Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto (Southern Greece). Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, Pope Pius V, called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and led a rosary procession in Rome.
After about five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece, the combined navies of the Papal States, Venice and Spain managed to stop the Ottoman navy, slowing the Ottoman advance to the west and denying them access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas. If the Ottomans had won then there was a real possibility that an invasion of Italy could have followed so that the Ottoman sultan, who was already claiming to be emperor of the Romans, would have been in possession of both New and Old Rome. Combined with the unfolding events in Morocco where the Sa'adids successfully spurned the Ottoman advances, it confined Turkish naval power to the eastern Mediterranean. Although the Ottoman Empire was able to build more ships, it never fully recovered from the loss of trained sailors and marines, and was never again the Mediterranean naval power it had become the century before when Constantinople fell.
(Source: Wikkipedia)
The gospel passage provided for today's Mass is the account of the Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38). When the angel Gabriel revealed God's plan to Mary, she was filled with questions, thinking that the plan was not rational, but the angel reassured her that all things are possible for God. Similarly, what must have seemed a daunting task to the naval forces at the time came to pass, with the help of faith and prayer.
Today, we turn to Mary. Let us present the situations in our own lives, especially those that seem to have no answers. Let us entrust them to her and trust that she will never turn us away. Instead, our heavenly mother will always help us to find the answers we seek.
Have a great day.
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