Ave Maria Meditations
From Wikipedia: The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece. The Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepanto to met the Holy League forces, which had come from Messina. The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean. Lepanto was the last major navel battle in the Mediterranean fought entirely between galley and has been assigned great symbolic importance.
The Christian coalition had been promoted by St. Pope Pius V and he had advised all to be praying the rosary to Our Lady for this victory. The victory was acknowledged to be from her intercession and thus the Feast of the Holy Rosary was assigned the date of October 7th.
For an excellent short history of this battle, please see Harry Crocker’s article at
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7391
