Our Lady of the Rosary and the Victory of Christianity Over Islam

Today in the Catholic Church is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, commemorating a great victory of a united European Christian force against the Muslim Turks, through the intercession of Jesus’s Mother Mary.

The Christians who fought at Lepanto all carried a Rosary and fought explicitly for Jesus and Mary. Lepanto was a religious war—Christianity against Islam. The Western world continued to be Christian, and Europeans brought Christianity to the New World, because of the victory at Lepanto; it was a vital and historic victory.

The Rosary refers both to a specific set of prayers and to the chaplet of beads used to count them. The Rosary is a Bible-centered prayer. Most of the prayers in the chaplet are Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Jesus told us to pray the Our Father (Matt. 6:9-13), and most of the Hail Mary (Lk. 1:28, 42) is composed of Bible verses. There are 20 Mysteries of the Rosary, divided into five groups, almost all of them directly described in the Bible and all of them Scripturally-based. During each decade of the Rosary, while praying one Our Father and ten Hail Marys, a person meditates upon one mystery.

The Joyful Mysteries: The Annunciation, the Visitation of Mary, the Nativity of Jesus, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the Finding in the Temple

The Luminous Mysteries: The Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’s Proclamation (Preaching) of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration of Jesus, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist

The Sorrowful Mysteries: Jesus’s Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, Jesus Carries His Cross, Jesus’s Crucifixion

The Glorious Mysteries: The Resurrection of Jesus, the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth

“[Catholicsaints.info] On Sunday 7 October 1571 the combined Christian fleets under Don John of Austria achieved a significant naval victory over the Turks in the Straits of Lepanto. Thousands of Christians were liberated, the Turkish fleet was destroyed, and they suffered their first great defeat at sea. In gratitude to God and Our Lady, Pope Saint Pius V ordered an annual commemoration to be made of Our Lady of Victory. In 1573 Pope Gregory XIII transferred the feast to the first Sunday of October with the title Feast of the Most Holy Rosary since the victory was won through invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 1716 Pope Clement XII extended the feast to the whole Latin Rite calendar, assigning it to the first Sunday in October. Pope Saint Pius X changed the date to 7 October in 1913. In 1969 Pope Paul VI changed the name of the feast to Our Lady of the Rosary.”

There are many documented miracles obtained through praying the Rosary. As our world seems to be descending into chaos and evil, with world war looming, now, more than ever, we need to invoke the aid of Jesus and His Mother through the Rosary.¹

1. This article was originally published last year.