Our Lady of Victory: How the Rosary changed the Course of History (Fr Penna)

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — a celebration born from a miraculous victory in history. When Christian forces faced impossible odds, believers prayed the Rosary… and heaven answered.

In this new episode, Fr. Penna joins us to share the incredible story of that victory — how faith, prayer, and Our Lady’s intercession changed the course of history.

Transcript

Father, thanks for being here. So great. Uh can we have the Our Lady of Victory uh feast day coming up and Our Lady of the Rosary coming up and there's a real historical story behind this one and I would love for you to share the story. Okay. Can we start there? Start with the story and start with the observation that we are a community that is has its bones in history. I used to teach at university and one of the things I always instructed my students in is that you have to know history no matter what discipline. If you don't have history and a knowledge of history, it's like having a body without bones, it just sort of becomes a blob. And especially for us who are Christians, God entered into history. God became flesh in history. And that history has been transformed into a new meaning, salvation history. It's different than the other religion that's going to be part of the story that we are of of the Our Lady of Victory, namely the religion of Islam, which is an ahistorical religion. What do I mean by that? I the understanding is that when God revealed himself for the Muslim, the revelation of God is in a book. People often think that the the Quran, yeah, is the parallel of the Bible. It's not for the Muslim. The Quran is who is what Jesus is for the Christian. It's the if you will in liberation, God becoming word in a book that stands outside of time. So whenever we engage in this conversation between Christianity and Islam which will be the foundation of this story, we have to remember that kind of fundamental difference in who the prophet Muhammad is and what the Christian faith is. And it gets very serious because and I think we have to notice this. This is not a story just in the past, but it is a continuation of a story in the past. Someone pointed out that there are two billion Christians and there are one and a half billion Muslims. There will be no peace in the world if there's not peace between Christians and Muslims. Yet at the very same time, the struggle that manifests itself in violence and war continues in our times. And we'll come to that a bit later. But that's the sad story of the relationship between Islam and Christianity in the main. So the story of our lady of victory. Well, first of all, it's an older it's an older celebration. It start it started in the 13th c 13th century. Oh. Because there was a heresy in southern France. They were called the Cathars which means the pure ones or elbagenians. There's was a typical kind of if you will heresy in Christianity where some people think they are the supreme elect and that they have the pure understanding of what is truth. And they rejected a lot of the church's teaching even to the point of believing that there were two gods. There was a good god and a bad god. Manarchism we used to call that. And they would fight each other. In any case, this spread like wildfire in the southern part of France in Long Duck. And it became a political and a religious conflict that resulted in something that we could it's a whole other story called the Elvagencian crusade in which the pope asked the French king to confront this development and it was a bloody confrontation. Now out of that struggle we meet St. Dominic because St. Dominic was sent to preach against the Albagenzians, but he was deeply unsuccessful. Okay, he had an insight. The Albagenzians kind of lived a very, if you will, strict aesthetic life, whereas those who went to preach against them came from a church that was pretty wealthy and perhaps did not, if we will, walk the talk. So, Dominic had this insight. If we're going to preach the truth of Jesus, we had better look like the truth. And so that was the foundation of that community of preachers, okay? The order of preachers, the Dominicans. And in that, as tradition tells us, our lady gave him the gift of the rosary as a as, if you will, a foundation of this preaching, a practical way to support not only himself, but those who he was preaching to. and the preaching became very successful. The wars however continued in bloody butchery and there was a battle Busha that happened in the year 1317 and excuse me 1217 and it was a rather miraculous battle in that the forces of the French king vastly outnumbered defeated the albagenian forces and it was then that the feast of our lady of victories began a celebration of Mary's intervention intercession as it was understood in this victory against all odds of uh the Christian Catholic forces against this heretical forces. Already we see what in modern years would be a great complication about all of this battle and war and religion. Yes. And feeding into the narrative all wars were caused by religion. Well, even in the Cathar wars, a lot of it was political because the French forces that were you that came to fight in the south, they were there because if they could kill off the f the Catholic nobility in the south, they would get all the land. Nonetheless, out of the you know, nonetheless, out of all of this mystery misery, something of of of freedom happened. I mean, there this is also the time of I don't know if you know St. Peter, Damon, Peter the martyr, he was killed by Cathars and when he on as he was traveling around, he was a Dominican priest preaching in this time and they attacked him and he was the one who they split his head with with an axe and he wrote with his own blood on the ground ko I believe. Wow. And that was the essential kind of struggle when religion was at the center of people's being. It wasn't it is of ultimate things and the persecution and suffering that is visited upon people of faith is a chance in which they are tested in their faith. And who is the one who supports that test as she does today? Our lady. Okay, this is becoming a bit there's the roots of it. There's the roots. Now, by the 16th century, the 1500s, the history was a really difficult one in Europe. Reformation had happened, right? Counterreformation had happened. There were great struggles particularly between the rising family called the Hopsburggs who were the Holy Roman emperors and devoutly Catholic and the Catholic uh king of France. But the French have always been rather how do I put this utilitarian in their Catholicism. They were quite willing to set it aside as Cardinal Rishelu would do if it was for the benefit of their own financial and territorial gains for us. Jesus just told us, "Hey, you can't serve God and Mammon. You're going to serve one or the other." And that's been a constant struggle. God is fine unless there are issues of mammon. Then you look to where your best chance is, right? And so the French looked to a kind of an alliance with the great greatest power in the Mediterranean Mediterranean at the time which was the Ottoman Empire. Now in 1453 the Ottomans had finally taken Constantinople. It is now Istanbul which is a Turkish version of Constantinople. And that was the end of the Roman Empire. That was the end of the Christian control of that part of the world. You know, the Ottoman Empire for 600 years was the largest empire on earth. It only ended in 1922 after after their defeat in the first world war. And this empire was extremely aggressive. The Turk peoples were very strong and aggressive. And Islam has always been a a religion of the sword of jihad. Yes, people talk about the spiritual jihad. That's a nice way of of wishful thinking. The reality in the past was jihad was done with the sword. You spread the faith with the sword. And they were extremely powerful. And one of the things that they had was one of the most advanced militaries in the world. This is in the 1500s now. And the core of their their army was a group called the Janiseries. and janiseries were great warriors, but they were all Christian boys who had been taken from their families, Christians living in the Islamic Ottoman Empire and forcibly converted into uh Islam and just become absolute fierce and focused warriors. So they're taken as children was just as children. They would go in they don't know the difference. They have no idea. So they would go in the the Ottoman forces would come into a Christian village and say okay bring out your your kids all those boys are going. Wow. Just take them away from their families and that was it. And so they were right quite fanatic and disciplined. Okay. So with those forces and with their technology especially with guns and cannons the Ottomans expanded in the early part of the 1500s they defeated their longtime emperor uh foes the Hungarians. There was constant battle between is the Ottoman forces, the Turkish forces, the Islamic forces, and the Christian Hungarian forces in the east. And so they'd come all the way up there such that in 1529, this is just a few years after the the start of the uh of the Reformation, Vienna, which was the key to all of Europe, was surrounded. By God's grace, it rained a lot. And that rain just soaked and sickened the the army of the greatest uh um the greatest leader that the Ottoman Empire ever knew called Sullean the Magnificent who was the Khalifa who the head of the empire and this the city was under siege. total under totally under siege and quite miraculously thanks to the German lungs connect which was a great fighting force a German force with their long pikes they were able to withstand the the to Ottoman Empire forces who retreated okay so you've got a battle constantly going on of the Ottoman Empire pressing upon Europe which is divided between these two Christian uh leaders and also Christianity is divided with the reformation on all fronts everything is falling apart. So if you've got a strong group right and especially with a consistent idea and great uh ability to have military might Europe had a century of being under deep threat by the Muslim forces of the Ottoman Empire. This came to a head in 1566. The story is fascinating, but we'll just get to little, we'll sort of shut it down. In 15, excuse me, 1565, there was a group called the Knights of Malta. Maybe you've heard of the Knights of Malta. They are still have their own country. They're a little teeny country. It's very interesting. sidebar. If you go to Rome and you come to the uh to the place where the sovereign order of Malta has its country, there's a possibility that you can stand in one country, look through another and see another. You stand in Italy, you look through the keyhole, you're looking through the Knights of Malta, and you see the Vatican. One, two, three countries, very few. Anyway, that's beside the point. They were created as hospital uh hospitalers to support the Christian pilgrims on their way to their pilgrimage and they were a constant thorn in the side of the Ottoman Empire. They had great forces, great fleets and they were able to be a real pain. Solomon said, "I want them gone." In 1565, he sent a huge uh naval invasion filled with these janiseries to attack Malta, which was only defended by, I think, 500 knights and 3,000 of the Maltese really didn't like the Malt the Knights that much cuz they were like a foreign imposition, but they didn't like even more the threat of Islamic conquest. Now, this was a vitally important moment because Malta was the key to all to open up the whole of the Mediterranean to Ottoman forces. At this time, Turkish forces were attacking all of Italy. There was still lots of massacres and enslavement. The level of Christian enslavement, and this is going to come into our story, was very high. They would raid, they would enslave Christians, make them galley slaves, bring them back. White Christian slaves were highly Someone might know what a galley sleeve is. A galley slave. Thank you. A galley at this time. The kind of ships that they had were ships that had um sails but for war they had rows of oresmen that allowed them to turn. And the ships were basically uh transportation of land forces. That's the way it was all the time in the Mediterranean from Roman times that the way in which naval battles I know it might sound a little weird that a priest knows all this stuff. I like history that the way that they would have naval battles. We'll get back to the conversation in just a second, but a question for you. If you've been blessed by this video, you could help us out in a couple very simple ways. Firstly, like and share this video. YouTube is going to see that and then suggest this message out to a larger audience. So, that's something simple you could do. Secondly, could you pray for us? We're always in need of grace and we'd greatly appreciate your prayers. And thirdly, if it is possible, consider supporting our mission at cannonjanel.com. Your support allows us to continue producing videos just like the one you're watching. So, thank you so much for the consideration. Now, back to the conversation. Naval battles. I know it might sound a little weird that a priest knows all this stuff. I like history. that the way that they would have naval battles is that the ships would come together and they basically turn the sea into a land and they would just fight back and forth that way. Pretty brutal. In any case, the Ottomans were attacking Malta and that's a movie that has yet to be made cuz it is a just an amazing story of how they defeated Malta. This was to the great relief of Europe such that Queen Elizabeth, that horrible person who was in England, she even sent a letter of thanks to the Knights of Malta for protecting and stopping this key uh part of the whole defense of Europe from falling to Muslim forces. Okay. A few years pass and we're now at the year 1571. And in this time we have the um growth of a new Solman had died but his son is now on the throne and he wants to continue this pressure of the Ottoman Empire of the Ottoman Empire. This pressure of fundamentally Muslim forces against the Christian forces and here is the setup. Pope Pas I St. Pas 5 saw this pressure. Venice had many lands. It was a naval power at the time in the eastern Mediterranean and they saw this growing threat. And so the pope called a crusade the formation of a holy league to oppose the uh coming of the these forces to do something to get together. Now of course we talk about Europe being all divided. Squables broke out. Who was going to lead it? Where could they get power from? Well, by 1573, they were able to cobble together a pretty powerful force, but not as equal in number to the forces of the Muslim invaders. And they under the leadership of the son of the emperor Don Juan of a of Austria, they put together what is called the the holy league force. Pope Pas I V asked that prayers to our blessed mother, especially the rosary be said as this battle was becoming imminent. And the critical moment happened on October the 7th when at a place called Leanto, which is just off the southern coast of in the Adriatic Sea between uh Croatia and Greece, the Christian FE fleet engaged the Muslim Ottoman forces. And again, miracle of miracles, it was a thorough defeat of the Muslim forces. The Christians sustained great losses in that battle. I mean, the maneuvers and everything that went on, but not as many as the Muslims. So, about 30,000 Ottomans died and 15,000 of the uh uh excuse me, 10,000 Christians died, 15,000 wounded in this battle. Amongst whom was Cervantes, the great novelist of Doniote, who bore the rest of his life the scars of that battle of Leanto. But it was a an incredible moment in the battle when they were able to get into these the galleys of the Muslims and free the Christian slaves that were on the oars and they gave them arms and that those slaves armed were able to join in the battle and in many ways turn the tide. It was an interesting if you're a military historian it's much more complicated than that. The question the Protestant Reformation is already kind of started prior to this. So was there any Protestants? No. So they're completely separated from Rome. They're not but yet they greatly benefit. Of course. Yeah. No, there was no Protestant. And in fact, Northern Europe wasn't very much involved because unfortunately the new Holy Roman Emperor was one of the two emperors that were a little bit sort of iffy on their Catholicism, right? The Hapsburgs have always been the bull work of Catholicism. and under them under their leadership with they allowed the Jesuits and other preachers to come in and turn the tide in the counterreformation. Okay. But it's so there's a mix of politics but it's only the Catholic Christians who span Spaniards and Italians. All right. And of the Italians a lot of Venetians. In fact, one of the great Barbarigo, one of the great uh Venetian admirals perished as did all the leadership of Sulaman Pasha who was the head of the Muslim forces, the Ottoman forces. Okay. So, in terms of the numbers, what are we talking about? Like were they was it an equal match? It was closer to an equal match than the other ones. it would have been about 3-2 Muslim Ottoman forces to Catholic forces. Uh this was the last big battle of the galleys where they were rowing and bashing into each other and history of in history. And it was the first time that Christians could see that what had been up to then an unstoppable military force, namely the Ottoman Empire, was able to be defeated. Now, the Christians didn't press their advantage after this defeat because they started fighting with each other. The Italians fighting with them and every the energy got dissipated much to Pope Pas I's sadness. However, because at the time of this battle there was were special prayers going on to our lady praying the rosary. He declared that day as being our lady of victories and and moving it from the earlier time of that earlier miraculous battle against the Cathars and the heretics to this fight with the existential threat of Islam and the Ottoman Empire. He moved it to October the 7th, the day of the battle. And he fulfill he added to the rosary the prayers that were, if you will, are extra scriptural. What do I mean? The prayers to the of the Hail Mary up until that point had been,

"Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. That was the rose. That was the Hail Mary. He added, "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." It was in celebration of this that this Pope P turned to the rosary. Why? In particular, he was a Dominican. So the good son of St. Dominic he established the up which until the time of St. John Paul II the the decades of the rosary that were to be said and added in celebration of this victory a prayer that was not so much though the occasion was the action and they thought it was the intercession of the blessed virgin Mary. I believe it as well in this struggle but that the greater struggle is the interior struggle of the human person. That's where the deepest battle is fought for every person in our souls. And there so that struggle in that struggle we are given by God's grace the gift of Mary who points to Jesus and who with that motherly love unites us with her son so that we in that battle can see the victory is already won. What if in Leonto the Ottoman Empire would have won? Carry that forward. what would have happened to Spain and Portugal and the trade routes and everything and and Europe and and bring that even for to what would have happened here now what they would have called the new world and set like what what would have what do you think would have happened? Well, that's alternative history sort of thinking and and it's a good good question. I know what wouldn't have happened. There wouldn't have been a space given to Europe to develop what it had at its hands, namely the technological civilizational university education development based on Christianity that was allowed to flourish at the time. it that part of the world was so divided that that pressure would have probably seen once again what happened uh the need for another Charles Martell. You know who Charles Martell was? I don't. Oh okay. So Islam for by the end of the first hundred years of of time after after the death of the prophet Muhammad if he actually lived uh had conquered all of Spain and was moving into France and it was at the battle of my brain just went blank that Charles Martell it's one of the most famous battles I should know stopped the Muslim forces from going in and that would have been France would have been all under the power of the of the Arab forces. And it took another oh well almost 700 uh no yes almost 700 years for them to to push the Islamic uh civilization out of of Spain. So that's what would have happened again because the forces of Islam they were raiding and they were attacking all over the place. They would have had freedom uh if the battle had not been won to continue their piracy to look at they had just a few years before gone all the way to Rome and threatened Rome. They were burning all they destroyed many cities in southern Italy. We have many places that celebrate martyrdoms of Christians in southern inmbi. There's a special devotion to the 800 Christians who were butchered in the 15th century by Muslim raiders and by the Muslim forces. There was a great fight that was going. We don't understand it. You know who understands it are the Hungarians. They have been always on the forefront of the battle with that pressure from the Turk Muslim forces and that whole area of the Balkans has always been the a place of battle and that's why you find right now Hungary extremely resistant to allowing any Muslim refugees to come to their place. They said we know what happens when they come. Regarding that that battle, uh did pope did the pope specifically ask uh prayers asking the intercession of us? Absolutely. Okay. So that was a very that was part of it. Processions were asked across Europe so that everybody participated through prayer in this battle particularly to the blessed virgin Mary. Particularly to the blessed virgin Mary. In fact, it was to that was the focus of all of the prayers across Europe. Wow. So, it stayed that way as the Our Lady of Victories until it was in 16 I think 1623 Pope Gregory the 13th. Might be wrong. There's all these different popes and I get old. It was the name our lady of victories was kind of replaced in the church by our lady of the rosary and that was made actually a feast to be celebrated on a Sunday. Okay. So that's the kind of history of that day and there are many churches that are named our lady of victory and there are many churches that are named our lady of the rosary and that's a great devotion and it is rooted in the confidence that Christians have known in their history that our lady is no wimp. Read the magnificant sweet pictures of the blessed virgin Mary perhaps do not quite get the voice of our lady. You have cast down the mighty from their thrones and have lifted up the lowly. You have sent the You have filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. H this I love listening to Jesus because I know when I hear the of course I love listening to Jesus. Jesus is the word of God. And yet his human voice also echoes with the voice of Mary and Joseph. We have to remember that like Jesus was fully human. And I don't know about you, but as I get older, I realize I got a lot of my mom in me and I got a lot of my dad in me and it comes out. So too in Jesus. Of course, it's his father in heaven that is most powerfully through that. But the way of his preaching, the tone of his voice, all those that were around him would have heard the tone of Mary's voice and her strength and Joseph's voice and his strength and his passion and what he was interested in in Jesus. And that continues and our lady then really helps us in our confrontations not only in battle. I see that there's some places called battle rosaries that you can get, you know, reproductions of what soldiers had during the war. Yeah. Always turning to our lady. Always turning to our lady as a comfort. That is what our lady of victory is about. Thank you. You're welcome.