History of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (Oct. 7th)

I must first admit that I had no knowledge regarding the history behind the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary prior to attending mass for the feast today. When Fr. George at St. Mary’s mentioned a battle between Turks and the Christian army at sea and the involvement of Pope St. Pius V in his homily, it piqued my interest. After remembering it later today, I decided to do some research and I thought I will share what I found with my readers. 

(This is a summary of Dr. Warren Carroll’s description of the event as written in A History of Christendom Vol. 4: Cleaving of Christendom, Chapter 6, pages 352-356)

Vision of Pope St. Pius V

On March 15, 1570, during the Papacy of Pope St. Pius V, Sultan Selim II of Turkey sent out an ultimatum to Venice to surrender the old crusader kingdom Cyprus or face war. Venice senates held a vote on the matter and decided that they reject the ultimatum and prepare for war. At this time, Pope St. Pius V started making preparations to assist Venice by contacting Spain, Portugal and France.

In July, the Turkish army landed in Cyprus with an army of 60,000 and the Cypriote Capital, city of Nicosia surrendered on terms to the Turkish army. The Turkish army later broke the terms and slaughtered the soldiers and civilians while selling the women to slavery (by sending them to Istanbul via ships). A small Christian fleet that had been sent to help Cyprus retreated after seeing the situation. 

On March 7, 1571, Pope St. Pius V signed a treaty that formed the Holy League and he entrusted it to the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Supreme commander of the fleet was Don Juan of Austria.

Meanwhile, the city of Famagusta kept up the fight against the Turks. In April 1571, another Turkish fleet 100,000 strong headed by Lala Mustafa, landed in Cyprus to take up the battle against the city. The Holy League was still in stage of preparation. The commander Marcantonio Bragadino at Famagusta, the army and resources having been depleted, surrendered on the terms that the life of everyone in the city will be spared. But the terms were violated by the Turkish army as with Nicosia. Lala Mustafa is said to have flayed Bragadino alive, stuffed the skin and dragged it through the streets ordering that everyone in the city be massacred. 

The stage had been set. From the Christian point of view, the battle was a matter of victory or facing the fate of the cities of Cyprus. The entire Christian Europe was asked to pray the Rosary for victory.  A naval fleet of 200 war galleys had gathered under the Holy League alliance. They set off under Don Juan on September 16^th to battle. The Papal Nuncio blessed the ships as they were leaving the harbor entrance. Every man aboard the ships carried a rosary to pray. Earlier, Cardinal Granvelle had given Don Juan a golden banner with the figure of Christ Crucified that he was told to fly on the day of the battle.

Around 2 am in the morning of October 7^th, 1571, the Christian fleet entered the gulf carried on a strong wind that favored them. 

The Turkish fleet was stationed in the harbor of Lepanto at this time, about 300 ships strong. The Turkish fleet came in to battle in its crescent formation which is said to have extended from shore to shore across the gulf. The Turkish army was led by Grand Admiral Muesinsade Ali who flew a green banner with the name of Allah inscribed 28900 times on it in gold.

The Christian fleet took the formation of a cross with two large warships leading from the front and bulk of the ships on the center column. The front warships were commanded by two brothers of the commander Bragadino that had been flayed in Famagusta.  Don Juan flew a blue flag with the figure of Christ Crucified. He went from ship to ship with a crucifix in hand telling his men “Live or die, be conquerors; if you die, you go to heaven”. Then he hung the crucifix in the forward mast of his flagship. Mass was said aboard the ships by priests and general absolution was given to the men. 

As the Turkish army approached with the sound of “gongs, cymbals, conchs and yells” the Christian army waited in silence. Then Don Juan fired the first shot toward Ali’s ship and the battle began.

The front-line two large war ships manned by the Bragadino brothers opened fire while the two flagships met each other and the Christians took the fight to the deck of the Turkish flagship. As the battle was raging, the right wing of the Turkish army arrived to flank the Christian fleet. At this decisive moment, the Christians who had been held as slaves at the oars of the Turk galleys broke free and lead an assault themselves. By mid-afternoon, Muesinsade Ali together with 8000 turks were killed, 10,000 captured, 50 ships destroyed and 117 captured. 7500 Christians were killed and 12 ships lost but 12,000 Christian galley slaves were saved. The green banner was lowered and the blue flag with the figure of Christ crucified now flew from the top. More importantly, there was never to be another Turk invasion via sea against Christendom. 

(The banner used by Don Juan can be found today at the Museum of Toledo)

It is said that right around this hour of victory, Pope St. Pius V in Rome was speaking with his treasurer when he had a vision. He is known to have opened the window, looked up at the sky and said “This is not the time for business, make haste to thank God, because our fleet this moment has won a victory over the Turks”

When the official news of the victory arrived in Rome on October 21, the Pope is known to have wept and said to God “Now dismiss your servant in peace”. He celebrated a thanksgiving mass at St. Peters the following Saturday and the following march he declared that the feast of Our Lady of Victory (now known as Our Lady of Holy Rosary) to be celebrated on the day of the battle (October 7^th) as it continues to this day.

(Pope St. Pius V died in 1672 and was canonized in 1712) 

I hope that this event showing the power of the Rosary and the help we can receive through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary will encourage the dear reader to pray the rosary whenever it is possible during this month dedicated to her (since Pope Leo XIII).