The Battle of Lepanto

Today is the four hundred and thirty-eighth anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto. Set just off the western coast of Greece, the battle pitted an international fleet of over 40,000 Western Christian sailors and troops (called the “Holy League”) against 44,000 Ottomans. The battle has been called the most decisive naval battle anywhere on the globe since 31 BC. It was a watershed moment in Western Christianity turning back the tide of Islam’s march into Europe and the Mediterranean. As historian Serpil Atamaz Hazar put it, “after Lepanto the pendulum swung back the other way and the wealth began to flow from East to West” . . . it was “a crucial turning point in the ongoing conflict between the Middle East and Europe, which has not yet completely been resolved.”

Both sides attributed the victory to Divine Will and Pope Pius V created a new Catholic feast day of “Our Lady of Victory” to commemorate the victory. It is now celebrated by the Catholic Church as the “feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.”