Today's Gospel in Art - Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

The Battle of Lepanto, by Paolo Veronese 1572 © Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Gospel of 7th October 2020 - Luke 11:1-4

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.'

He said to them, 'Say this when you pray:

'"Father, may your name be held holy,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.

And do not put us to the test."'

Reflection on the Painting

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This feast was originally known as the feast of 'Our Lady of Victory', as it honours the naval victory at Lepanto which secured Europe against a Turkish invasion. Pope 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.

Troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire had invaded and occupied the Byzantine empire and by 1453, a large portion of the increasingly divided Christian world was brought under a version of Islamic law. For the next decades, the Turks expanded their empire westward on land, pushing into Europe and asserted their naval power in the Mediterranean. In 1565 they attacked Malta, and were planning to invade Rome as their next stage. Five years later the Holy League alliance was formed, largely made up by four main Catholic powers: Genoa, Venice, Spain, and the Papal States. The 200-ship large fleet sailed to confront the Turks, and in preparation for battle, the crew members prayed the rosary on all ships. Throughout the rest of Europe the pope had asked for the rosary to be prayed on that day in all churches. When hearing the news that 280 of the nearly 300 Turkish ships had been sunk, the Pope instituted the feast now celebrated universally as Our Lady of the Rosary. The history of Christianity would have looked significantly different had the Battle of Lepanto not been won!

Our painting by Paolo Veronese depicts this battle and was painted a year only after the actual battle. In the top half of our painting, we see the Saints Peter, Roch, Justine and Mark imploring Our Lady to grant victory to the Christian fleet. In answer to their pleas, we see an angel on the right hurling burning arrows at the Turkish vessels. Rain hits them too… whilst bright sunshine lights the Christian fleet.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/567

Christian Art - www.christian.art