Rod uses the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto to give Chesterton an airing. Grand stuff. But Mr Dreher also has this to say:
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, the 1571 grand naval battle that saved Europe from Ottoman Turkish conquest. The victory — one of the greatest ever in naval warfare — was credited by Pope Pius V to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who’d received countless rosaries in petition for the victory of Christian forces and the protection of Christian Europe from Islamic conquest. Today, then, is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary among Catholic Christians. Europe wouldn’t be free of the Turkish threat for good until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
If you have a glass to lift tonight, raise it in thanksgiving to God, the Virgin and the West’s naval commanders, especially Don John of Austria.
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