Don't Mention the War...

In this enlightened age, are we allowed to mention Lepanto?  "Le..what", I'm sure younger readers may be saying.  The great naval battle of the 7th October 1571 which saved Europe from invasion by the Turks; its Christian victory being credited to Our Lady through the praying of the Rosary, and commemorated each year as the feast of the Holy Rosary. 

Lepanto was an important European event which has been forgotten by many, I suppose thanks to the Enlightenment, it does not merit remembrance because of its religious significance.  And yet, together with the Siege of Vienna of 1683, it was an important European event which preserved not only the Christian faith here, but also European cultures.  One would imagine with the growing influence and sovereignty of the European Union, such pan-European events would be included in the history books of our students.

Lepanto was an interesting battle.  First of all, most of the European powers had no interest in it, and Pope St Pius V had an awful time trying to encourage the rulers of the continent to send forces to join the Holy League to defend Christendom.  His pleas fell on deaf ears, which was sad because if one thing could have united Catholic and Protestant across Europe, it could have been the Holy League.  If it had, might be we celebrating today the first ecumenical venture of the various Christian denominations? 

One cannot reflect on the battle without turning to our regular correspondent on this blog, good old Chesterton.   He sums it all up well.  The apathy of the crowned heads of Europe:

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass..

Don Juan of Austria's heeding the call:

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half-attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young.
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war..

The victory:

(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!