LEPANTO - ISLAM DENIED
The Order's heroic defense in the three
Great Sieges has saved Europe on each occasion, but now a huge Moslem fleet was
being assembled and prepared for yet another invasion. Utilizing all the
persuasion and authority at his command, the great Pope St. Pius V now insisted
that the Christian states put aside their conflicts and jealousies and join in
the defense of Christendom. There was limited response to the Pope's
plea. However, Spain and the states of Genoa and Venice joined forces with
the Papal States and the Sovereign Order - all under the command of Prince Don
John of Austria, son of Charles V and brother of Phillip II of Spain. The
young commander, who was but 24 years of age, would go down in history as the
great Don Juan.
On October 7, 1571, the historic battle of Lepanto was
fought. A combined Christian fleet of 218 fighting ships (212 galleys and
6 galeasses) and twenty-eight transports, led by three galleys of the Sovereign
Order, engaged a huge Islamic fleet consisting of 270 warships (200 galleys and
70 firgates and brigantines) in the Gulf of Patras, off the island of Lepanto,
near the coast of Turkey. Every Christian ship carried a relic of the
True Cross and a chaplain who offered Mass. Every warrior went to
confession and received communion enroute to the battle. And miraculously,
Pius V, while in the Vatican, was given a vision of the battle while it took
place across the Mediterranean. It was the greatest sea battle in all of
history.
The victory of the Christian fleet defies description: 90
Turk Ships were sunk, 140 galleys were captured, 5,000 Turk officers and 30,000
men were lost. More than 20,000 Christian slaves were freed from the holds
of the Turk galleys. Christian losses were 17 galleys, 14 captians of
galleyss and 7,600 men. The might of Islam in the Mediterranean was
broken!
For two centuries following the Great Siege of Malta and the
Battle of Lepanto, the Order of Saint John prospered as a commercial, cultural
and medical center. However, the glorious days of the Sovereign Order were
numbered. The noble Order of Saint John - "The Religion" - would suffer
from the same revolutionary forces which would engulf Europe, disrupt the
natural Order, destroy the Monarchies, enshrine the carnal, establish the reign
of tyranny, deny God, wage an all-out assault on the Church, and through wars
and revolution bring death to millions. For the Order, the year of its
degradation would be 1798.