Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

On Oct. 7, 1571, Don Juan of Austria led a coalition of Christians against the Ottoman forces seeking to gain control of the Medi­terranean. The Christian fleet was assembled together by the Republic of Venice and the Spanish Empire, along with the Papacy. In the Gulf of Patras near Corinth, Greece, the Christian and the Muslim forces engaged in the battle of Lepanto, one of the most important battles of history. On its outcome hung the fate of Europe. Would it remain Christian or would it become Muslim?

Recognizing the need for divine assistance, Pope St. Pius V had all the churches of Rome kept open for prayer day and night. He encouraged the faithful to ask the intercession of the Mother of God by praying the Rosary. In towns and villages, people responded to the Pope’s plea and came together to pray the Rosary.

As the battle commenced, the Pope joined the faithful in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to pray the Rosary. Their prayer rose to heaven unceasingly from day to night. When the battle ended, the Muslim fleet, which had a great advantage at the beginning of the battle, suffered a crushing defeat. They lost 200 of their 270 ships. Their casualties numbered 30,000. The Christian casualties numbered less than 5,000.

First-hand witnesses of the Battle of Lepanto attributed the dramatic victory of the Christian fleet to “an unknown factor.” But not Pope St. Pius V. He knew that it was the Rosary that had secured the victory. In fact, at the very hour of victory, the Pope who was far from the battle, rose from a meeting in the Vatican, walked to a window and opened it. With tears in his eyes, he exclaimed, “The Christian fleet is victorious!” Mary had intervened. The Pope immediately established Oct. 7 as the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary.

Speaking about the Rosary, centuries later, Pope St. Pius X said, “The Rosary is the most beautiful…of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God…” He urged people to pray the Rosary for peace. For, as the Battle of Lepanto proved, the Rosary is a most efficacious prayer for peace. And, besides, it is itself a peaceful prayer.

In the midst of our chaotic times, in which the media continually bombard us with distressing news, the Rosary is an oasis of peace. It is the space of quiet and renewal which we create in our daily lives by meditating on the central mysteries of our faith. “By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed” (Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus, February 2, 1974, 47).

In her very first apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917, the Blessed Mother urged us to pray the Rosary every day for peace. It is a prayer that anyone, from the youngest child to the dying, can pray. It requires no special place, but only the lifting up of our hearts and minds to God who is present everywhere. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen beautifully said, “The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the Rosary is beyond description.”

On Sept. 29, 2018, Pope Francis called on all Catholics to pray the Rosary. He spoke of a “spiritual turbulence” that the Church is facing in our day. Like his saintly predecessors, Popes Sts. Pius V, Pius X, Paul VI and John Paul II, he rightly sees that we are engaged in a battle between good and evil, between God’s way and the devil’s way. In facing any challenges to the faith, the devil always seeks to distress, upset, anger and destroy. But, by turning to Mary, we receive the calm and prudence which we need to make right judgment and to continue the work of Christ.

In our own struggle against evil, the Rosary is most effective. The late chief exorcist of Rome, Father Gabriel Amorth, once said, “One day a colleague of mine heard the devil say during an exorcism: ‘Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was, it would be my end.’ ”

In times of crisis, when obstacles seem insurmountable and angry voices would dismantle the faith, when there is a need for healing of deep wounds and hurts, faithful Catholics do not lose hope. They turn to Mary, the Help and Hope of Christians. As the late visionary of Fatima once told us, “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” And, so in this time of turbulence, we turn to the Rosary.