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Our Lady of the Rosary Novena Day 8.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear Lord, we thank You for giving us Your mother as Our Lady of the Rosary. Help us to turn to her as our mother in all of our needs!
Our Lady of the Rosary, the hostilities of the Ottoman Empire were a great threat to Christianity. As Pope Pius V turned to your intercession during the Battle of Lepanto, he knew that your help was greatly needed to battle the Muslims.
During the pontificate of Pope Pius V, 1566-72, the Ottoman Turks became a serious threat to Christian nations. They controlled maritime power in the Mediterrranean, and regularly raided the coast cities of Italy. Venice, the most vulnerable, tried to maintain a strategic neutrality to protect her trade with the East. When Sultan Selim II demanded the surrender of Cyprus, the Venetians appealed to the Pope.
Pius V proposed the Holy League of Christian powers, the crusade against the Turks. He succeeded in organizing a fleet at Messina under command of Don Juan of Austria. In 1571 this fleet comprised 206 galley ships and 80.000 soldiers from Venice, Naples, Genoa, Spain and Malta. The Turks had superior forces – 230 galleys and 120,000 soldiers.
Don Juan aboard the flagship, Reale, sailed down the Greek coast on the morning of October 7th 1571 and spied the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Lepanto (Corinth). Admiral Ali Pasha aboard his flagship, Sultana, took the lead. Christian and Turkish fleets engaged in battle. By day’s end the Sultana was captured, Ali Pasha was slain, the Turks were routed, and 12,000 Christians were released from slavery.
