The Most Holy Name of Mary and the Siege of Vienna

From Belgrade to Vienna.

The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary.


The feast existed long before the Siege of Vienna, yet it was after the victory over the invading Turks that the feast was extended to the universal Church.

Before the Battle of Vienna in 1683, Polish king, John III Sobieski had placed his troops under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the following year, to celebrate the victory, Pope Innocent XI added the feast to the General Roman Calendar, assigning to it the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity of Mary. - source

• In the summer of 1683, the main army of the Ottoman Empire, a large and well-equipped force, besieged Vienna. The town was nearing the end of its ability to resist: but just as the capture of Vienna was becoming only a matter of time – not more than a week away, at most – an army came to its rescue. On September 12th, in an open battle before Vienna, the Ottoman army was defeated, and the city escaped pillage and destruction. There is probably no book on the general history of Europe that does not record these events. - source

Today's feast is considered a prodigy or triumph of the Holy Rosary, as is the major feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7.  Each feast is a triumph of Christendom over the invading Muslims.  I'm not sure Catholics especially recognize the significance of these feast days - especially considering the current migration of Islamic peoples into Europe.  Oddly enough, Drudge headlined this weekends influx of Syrian refugees into Austria as "The Siege of Vienna."

A caution on the refugee crisis in Europe.


Fr. Z has an insightful post on the influx of Muslim refugees into Europe, stating: I don’t think that we are really taking stock of what is going on in the West. “Immigrants” are pouring into Europe across the Mediterranean via Lampedusa. “Immigrants” are pouring into Europe through Turkey toward Germany.


[Ed. note:  Now my deeply traditional Catholic roots are showing with this post.  I grew up with the Rosary.  The devotion was deeply imprinted upon me since earliest memory.  I was enthralled with the stories of miraculous victories obtained through the prayers of the Rosary.  I was, and I am, a child of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.  Therefore I take very seriously what is going on with the rise of Islam in the world.  I think I know where Fr. Z is coming from on this - which is why I will link to another post he sites regarding recent developments in the West.]


The Final Hijra: A Warning on the Refugee Crisis ...

The first hijra conquered Jerusalem in 638. The second hijra conquered Constantinople in 1453. Two of the three oldest and holiest cities for Christians were conquered by Muslims.

Except for Rome.

This, now, is the third hijra. According to certain voices in the Islamic world, it will be the final hijra, the one that will conquer Rome.

In Islamic circles, there has been a long-held belief that Christianity — and specifically, the Catholic Church — is the main obstacle impeding Islam’s domination of all humanity under one religious and political system. Therefore, in order to realize this vision, the Christian faithful must not only be converted to Islam, but their sacred spaces must be taken from them and given to the dar Al-Islam – “the house of Islam.” If the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem led to the end of Christianity as the dominant religion in the Holy Land, and the same was true in the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Rome and the Islamization of St. Peter’s Basilica would mean the effective destruction of the Church worldwide, and its replacement with Islam. - source

Just scare tactics.


I don't think so.  I think the threat is very real.  Faithless Western leaders and politicians don't believe it, won't believe it.  The United States destabilized the region - for oil.  The slicing and dicing into nations and territories came about because of British involvement.  We made the mess - so no doubt we are responsible for many of the displaced people streaming out of Syria and the former Iraq and elsewhere.  I'm not against the U.S. taking responsibility for that and taking in refugees.  Yet the European migration strikes me as a different matter entirely.

A friend sent the following email on these issues, I'm using it without permission, which is why I post it anonymously - though I'm in complete agreement with what he says.

I also believe that as individual Christians, we have a duty to welcome the foreigner in our midst, especially when he comes to us broken and penniless. And this is why I applaud the pope's call for all European dioceses to welcome immigrant/refugee families.

However, I'm wondering how wise it is to insist that European governments take in all comers indefinitely as a matter of public policy. It's no secret that by and large, the huge numbers of Muslims who have come to Europe have not assimilated, but are openly hostile. I lived in Germany for two years, and it was frightening to see how common it was that Muslims living there had such utter and open contempt for their host countries. Vietnamese, Indians, Chinese, etc. entered seamlessly into German society, and enriched it, as did immigrants from elsewhere in the EU, but seeing women in niqab on the streets of Vienna was truly unsettling. Again, not the foreignness of it all, but the utter clash that this showed.

Granted, this might be Europe's just punishment for abandoning the Faith and contracepting their future out of existence. And they certainly bear the blame for their own demographic decline. But I just can't see how it's a recipe for anything other than disaster that thousands and thousands of young men are entering countries with close to 25% unemployment (like Spain) and with religious ideas that encourage open hostility.

Not all of Islam is hostile, but European mosques are almost all funded by radical Wahhabist Saudis, and yet rather than encourage evangelization of Muslims - and evangelization is the ONLY way Europe will ever be Europe again, whether a its of the migrants or the natives - it appears most bishops, Catholic and Protestant, actively discourage this kind of evangelization on the ground. The bishops of Germany, Belgium, France, etc. are bending over backwards to welcome not Muslims, but *Islam* to Europe.

So with all this, what should a nation do? Isn't the responsibility of a nation first and foremost to preserve its own people and their way of life? While refugees MUST be taken in, should Europe have to welcome all economic migrants, even into countries whose unemployment rates are something we've never even heard of over here? - friendly email

Befriending the stranger.


In Minnesota we have a large population of Somali immigrants - who appear to have problems with assimilation.  I've encountered many, especially in medical situations.  I also encounter many at Target and some grocery stores I visit.  Many I encounter definitely attitude problems.  I was at the ophthalmologist office several times, the Somalis always have an interpreter and rarely speak themselves.  Unless there is a problem and then they can get a bit shrill.  One day one woman parked in a fire lane and refused to move her car because it was an emergency - too cold to park in the ramp.  The receptionist later told me the Somalis were always very disagreeable and uncooperative.  I'm offering limited anecdotal evidence I know - but I frequently sense a certain level of hostility whenever I encounter them.  I smile, say hello to the men, or simply nod to the women - no response - ever.  Just saying.

We shall almost certainly have to reckon with Islam in the near future. Perhaps, if we lose our Faith, it will rise. For after this subjugation of the Islamic culture by the nominally Christian had already been achieved, the political conquerors of that culture began to notice two disquieting features about it. The first was that its spiritual foundation proved immovable; the second that its area of occupation did not recede, but on the contrary slowly expanded.

[…]

In my own youth the decaying power of Islam (for it was still decaying) in the Near East was a strong menace to the peace of Europe. Those old people of whom I speak had grandparents in whose times Islam was still able to menace the West. The Turks besieged Vienna and nearly took it, less than a century before the American Declaration of Independence. Islam was then our superior, especially in military art. There is no reason why its recent inferiority in mechanical construction, whether military or civilian, should continue indefinitely. Even a slight accession of material power would make the further control of Islam by an alien culture difficult. A little more and there will cease that which our time has taken for granted, the physical domination of Islam by the disintegrated Christendom we know. - Belloc

Fr. Z posts a short litany of Saints to deliver us. Today's feast points to the greatest saint of all, the one every Catholic should turn to. The one to whom our Lord has confided the peace of the world. Our Lady of the Rosary, Mediatrix of All Grace.

So many people today look for and await signs, heavenly warnings, visions and locutions. The signs are here present. The warnings have been given. The visions have been affirmed. Where are the eyes and ears of faith? Who is praying the rosary every day to obtain peace?

Holy Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace