On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion. Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe.

The feast always occurs one week after the similar Byzantine celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, which most Eastern Orthodox Christians and Eastern Catholics celebrate on October 1 in memory of a 10th-century military victory which protected Constantinople against invasion after a reported Marian apparition.

Pope Leo XIII was particularly devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary, producing 11 encyclicals on the subject of this feast and its importance in the course of his long pontificate.

In the first of them, 1883’s “Supremi Apostolatus Officio,” he echoed the words of the oldest known Marian prayer (known in the Latin tradition as the “Sub Tuum Praesidium”), when he wrote, “It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary.”

“This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven,” Pope Leo continued, “has never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy … or by an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies.” Foremost among such “attacks” was the battle of Lepanto, a perilous and decisive moment in European and world history.

Troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire had invaded and occupied the Byzantine empire by 1453, bringing a large portion of the increasingly divided Christian world under a version of Islamic law. For the next hundred years, the Turks expanded their empire westward on land, and asserted their naval power in the Mediterranean. In 1565 they attacked Malta, envisioning an eventual invasion of Rome. Though repelled at Malta, the Turks captured Cyprus in the fall of 1570.

The next year, three Catholic powers on the continent – Genoa, Spain, and the Papal States – formed an alliance called the Holy League, to defend their Christian civilization against Turkish invasion. Its fleets sailed to confront the Turks near the west coast of Greece on October 7, 1571.

Crew members on more than 200 ships prayed the Rosary in preparation for the battle – as did Christians throughout Europe, encouraged by the Pope to gather in their churches to invoke the Virgin Mary against the daunting Turkish forces.

Some accounts say that Pope Pius V was granted a miraculous vision of the Holy League’s stunning victory. Without a doubt, the Pope understood the significance of the day’s events, when he was eventually informed that all but 13 of the nearly 300 Turkish ships had been captured or sunk. He was moved to institute the feast now celebrated universally as Our Lady of the Rosary.

“Turkish victory at Lepanto would have been a catastrophe of the first magnitude for Christendom,” wrote military historian John F. Guilmartin, Jr., “and Europe would have followed a historical trajectory strikingly different from that which obtained.”

 PRAYING FOR MERCY IN THE DIVINE WILL

  on October 7, 2016  Original Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast Our Lady of the Holy RosaryFirst Friday one month before the end of the Jubilee Year of MercySt. Annibale Maria Di Francia Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990Luisa entered St. Anthony’s orphanage, founded by St. Annibale in 1928Luisa departs St. Anthony’s orphanage exactly ten years later

 V35 – 2.14.38 – “…We Did even More in the Creation of the Sovereign Queen…as We Pronounced Our Fiat to Create Her and Called Her to Life, We Created Forgiveness, Mercy and Reconciliation between Us and mankind, and We Deposited it in this Celestial Creature, as the Administrator between Our children and Hers. Therefore, the Sovereign Lady Possesses Seas of Forgiveness, Mercy and Piety, as well as Seas of Tears of Our Love, in which She Can Cover All human generations, Regenerated in these Seas Created by Us Within Her—Seas of Forgiveness, of Mercy, and of a Piety So Tender as to Soften the hardest hearts.”

 “…be faithful sentinels of the Gospel, who await and prepare for the coming of the New Day that is Christ the Lord.”—POPE JOHN PAUL II, Meeting with Youth, May 5th, 2002;

  V36 – 5.27.38 – “If you Live in My Fiat, the night shall be over for you and you shall enjoy the Fullness of the Day; or better still, every act done in It shall be a New Day, bringing New Graces, New Love and Unexpected Joys.”

 V24 – 8.23.28  “…The Truths about My Fiat are the New Gospel of the Kingdom of My Divine Will, in which they shall find the norms, the Sun, the teachings on how to ennoble themselves, elevate themselves to their Origin, and take the state given to them by God at the beginning of Creation. They shall find the Gospel that, taking them by the hand, shall lead them into True Happiness, into constant Peace. The only law shall be My Will that, with Its brush of Love, dipped in the Vivid Colors of Its Light, shall give back to man the Likeness of his Creator.”

 “…turning our eyes to the future, we confidently await the dawn of a New Day… “Watchmen, what of the night?” (Is. 21:11), and we hear the answer: “Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing for joy: for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion”…. “As the Third Millennium of the Redemption draws near, God is preparing a Great Springtime for Christianity and we can already see its first signs.” May Mary, the Morning Star, help us to say with ever New Ardor our “yes” to the Father’s plan for salvation that all nations and tongues may see His Glory.”—POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message for World Mission Sunday, n.9, October 24th, 1999;

  V20 – 12.22.26 – “Now, who shall be able to resist the Light of My Eternal Fiat? All of Its Knowledges shall be more than Rays of Light of My Volition, that shall beat down on the surface of the earth, and penetrating into the hearts, shall bring the Good that the Light of My Will contains and can do. However, these Rays must have their sphere from which to start; they must be centered in one single point, from which to arise in order to form the dawn, the day, the afternoon and the sunset within hearts, to then rise again. The Sphere, the Single Point, is you Luisa; the Rays Centered in it are My Knowledges that shall give Fecundity to the generation of the children of the Kingdom of My Will.”

 “The hour has come when the message of Divine Mercy is able to fill hearts with hope and to become the spark of a New civilization: the civilization of Love.” —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Krakow, Poland, August 18th, 2002;

  V15 – 4.14.23 – “This is about a New Era – about a Good which must serve all generations; but it is necessary that I first Centralize all this Good in one creature alone, just as I did in Redemption by centralizing everything in My Mama Mary. Take a look at how things proceed in a parallel way: in order to make Redemption come and to dispose souls for It, I made the promise of the future Messiah, so that, by hoping for Him to come, they would not only dispose themselves, but find, they too, their own salvation in the future Redeemer. Now, in order to dispose souls to Live in My Will, to let them partake in the Goods It Contains, and to make man Return to the Path of his Origin, just as he was Created by Me, I Myself wanted to Pray as the First, making My Voice Resound from one end of the earth to another, and even up High in Heaven, saying: ‘Our Father, Who art In Heaven’…

“…when the Church recites the ‘Our Father’, it is precisely for you Luisa that She prays, so that I may Centralize in you Luisa all the Good that My Will Contains, the ‘Way’ – the ‘How’ the Divine Will may have Life on earth as It does In Heaven. And even though you Luisa are not known, by echoing My Prayer, ‘Thy Will be done on earth as It is In Heaven’, the Church prays Me, presses Me to Centralize all this Good in a second virgin Luisa, so that, like a second savior, she may save unsafe humanity; and making use of My Inseparable Love and Mercy, I may Answer My Own Prayer, United to that of the whole Church, making man come back to his Origin, to the Purpose for which I Created him – that My Will be done on earth as It is In Heaven.”

 V12 – 12.10.18 The Same for the Hidden soul, who is Intimate With Me: as she Prays, though no sound is heard on earth, her Prayers, like Bells, Resound More Vibrantly in Heaven, to the Extent of Calling the Whole of Heaven to Unite Itself with her, and to Let Mercy Descend Upon the earth, which Resounding not to the hearing but to the hearts of creatures, May Dispose them to Convert.”

  “May Justice and Peace embrace at the end of the second millennium which prepares us for the coming of Christ in Glory.” —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Homily, Edmonton Airport, September 17th, 1984;

  V16 – 9.21.23 “My daughter Luisa, My Will wanted to make Justice of you.  This was necessary in order to test your fidelity, since all My Attributes Concur in All My Works.  And when the generations shall see All that I have Poured into you and, amazed, shall say:  ‘How could she not do all this, after You Gave her So Much?’, My Justice shall show the tests it made you undergo, and shall say to them:  ‘I made her go through the Fire of My Justice and I Found her Faithful, and this is why My Love Continued Its Course.’  Even more, you Must Know that the First to make Justice of you was My Love.  How many tests did it not make you undergo in order to be Sure about your love?  The Second was the Cross, which made Severe Justice of you Luisa, to the point that My Will, Drawn by My Love and by My Cross, wanted to Descend into you Luisa and to make you Live In It.  But My Will also did not want to be outdone by My Love and by the Cross, and to be sure, Jealous, It Withdrew, making Justice of you, to see whether you would continue your Flights In My Will without Me.”  On hearing this, I said:  ‘Ah! how could I continue them without You?  I lacked the Light, and if I would start, I would not finish, because the One who, making everything Present to me, would make me do it for All, making me Bind All the Relations between the Creator and All Creation, was not with me.  My mind would Swim in the empty Space, without Seeing Anyone.  How could I do them?’  And Jesus:  “Your Starting was Doing, and your Sorrow for being unable to finish was Completing.  Therefore, it takes Courage and Fidelity…”

 V6 – 6.20.04 – “My daughter, Luisa, human perfidy has reached such a point as to Exhaust My Mercy on Its Part. But My Goodness is So Great as to Constitute Daughters of Mercy, so that on the part of creatures also, this Attribute may not be Exhausted. These are the Victims who are in Full Ownership of the Divine Will, having Destroyed their own human will. In Fact, in these souls, the Container Given by Me in Creating them is in Full Vigor, and since they have received the Particle of My Mercy, being Daughters, they Administer It to others. It is understood, however, that in order to be Able to Administer the Particle of My Mercy to others, they themselves Must Be in Justice.” And I: ‘Lord, who can ever Be in Justice?’ And He: “The one who does not commit grave sins and Abstains from committing the slightest venial sins of his own human will.”

 V14 – 7.10.22 – “Now it is necessary that you Luisa rise and carry with you My Life, My Divine Will, so that My Volition of the earth and That of Heaven may Fuse together, and you may live for some time in the Womb of the Divinity, where your volition shall be acting in Mine, in order to expand it as much as a creature can be capable of. Then, you shall Descend again upon the earth, bringing the Power and the Prodigies of My Will, in such a Way that the creatures shall be shaken, they shall open their eyes, and many shall know what it means to Live In My Will – to Live In the Likeness to their Creator. This shall be the beginning of the Coming of My Kingdom upon earth, and of the Final Fulfillment of My Will.”

 1st Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians – Chapter 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible: and we shall be changed. [53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. [54] And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. [55] O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? [56] Now the sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmoveable; always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

  V21 – 3.16.27 “…The Secret Between Me and you, Luisa, has Allowed Me to Pour Out My Sorrow, So Long, and of So Many Centuries, in which, while My Divine Will Was in the midst of creatures, and Was Life of Each One of their acts, they did not Recognize It, keeping It in a State of Continuous Agony…My daughter, a Sorrow of Mine, Poured Out in the Secrecy of the heart of the one who Loves Me, has the Virtue of Changing Justice into Mercy; and My Bitternesses Change into Sweetnesses. Then, after I Trusted you, Luisa, Arranging Everything Together with you, I Called My Ministers, Priests, Giving them the Order to Make Known to the people the Beautiful News About My Supreme Fiat — the Many Knowledges about It: How I Call Everyone, that they May Come into My Kingdom, get out of the prison—of the exile of their human will, Take Possession of the lost Goods, So as to Live no longer unhappy and as slaves of the human will, but Happy and Free in My Most Holy Divine Will.”

 Hours of the Passion – The 19th Hour: 11 AM to 12 PM – Jesus is Crucified – 1st Part: The Crucifixion “My Love and my All, for this sharp pain You suffer, I pray You to close hell to all souls, and to hold back the Lightnings of Divine Justice Irritated, alas, by our own sins!  O Jesus, let Divine Justice be Appeased, so that the Divine Chastisements may not Pour Down upon the earth, and Treasures of Divine Mercy may be Opened for the Benefit of All.  My Jesus, I place the world and All generations into Your Arms, and I pray You, O my Sweet Love, with the Voices of Your Own Blood, to deny no one Your Forgiveness, and by the Merits of Your Most Precious Blood, to Concede to All the Salvation of their souls!  Do not exclude Anyone, O Jesus!”

The Command Prayer

 Abba Father, In the Name of Jesus, in the Unity and Power of the Holy Spirit, under the Mantle of Mary, with all the Angels and Saints, through the Intercession of The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta.

please take my humble prayer and make it Your Command,

That the Oceans of Forgiveness, Mercy and Piety, as well as the Oceans of Tears of Your Divine Love,

as Possessed by the Sovereign Lady, Cover All human generations so to Soften the hardest hearts.

please take my humble prayer and make it Your Command,

That You Make Known to Your people the Beautiful News about Your Supreme Fiat

and the Many Beautiful Knowledges about It and Call Everyone,

that they May Come into Your Kingdom, to get out of the prison—of the exile of their human will,

Take Possession of the lost Goods, So as to Live no longer unhappy and as slaves of the human will,

but Happy and Free in Your Most Holy Divine Will.

please take my humble prayer and make it Your Command,

You have Centralized in Luisa all the Good that Your Holy Divine Will Contains,

Please Make Use of Your Inseparable Love and Mercy,

Answering Your Own Command, United to that of the whole Church,

Returning mankind back to his Origin, the Purpose for which You Created him,

that Your Holy Divine Will be done on earth as It is In Heaven.

May this be the beginning of the Coming of Your Kingdom upon earth,

and of the Final Fulfillment of Your Will.

May all be accomplished and completed in Your Most Holy Divine Will.

Fiat!   Amen!