My parish’s patronal feast is today–the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. The photo illustrating this post shows the ceiling of the baldachin in our new church. The starry dome portrays the night sky over Lepanto on Oct 7, 1571.

The Feat of Our Lady of the Rosary–previously known as Our Lady of Victories–commemorates the glorious defeat of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto. While many Catholics know of this great historic event they perhaps are unaware of the links with other glorious victories through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To learn all about the battle go here.

In this article Carrie Gress chronicles the various victories of Our Lady down through history. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain is attributed to her intercession, and the Spanish link to the new world brought the devotion to the Spanish Virgin of Guadalupe to Mexico.

Forty years previous to the Battle of Lepanto in  1531 in Mexico the Blessed Virgin appeared to St Juan Diego and his uncle. The miracles that transpired brought thousands into the Catholic Church and the fame of Our Lady of Guadalupe was assured. In fact, Philip Kosloski tells the story here of how an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was on one of the ships in the Battle of Lepanto, and after the battle King Philip II of Spain offered to Our Lady of Guadalupe (in Spain) a lantern captured from the Turk’s flagship.

Our Lady’s victories are also linked to Fatima when she declared, “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph” What did she mean by this? Her prophecy is linked to the “errors of Russia” –the terror or Russian atheistic communism. Her ultimate triumph was that “Russia will be converted.” When Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia in 1984 the world was on the brink of nuclear disaster.  It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that nuclear disaster is part of the chastisement predicted by our Lady at Akita in 1973.

Did we avoid a nuclear disaster by the intercession of Our Lady of Victories in the early 1980s? Jimmy Akin connects the dots in this fascinating podcast. Jimmy discusses the Third Secret of Fatima in this podcast.

Whatever the truth of these controversial topics, we should be reminded that Our Lady of Victories is a powerful intercessor and if we consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart she will assist us in our own battles.

Go here for a prayer of consecration to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady of Victories, pray for us!