In America, we are all blessed with the freedom to practice our religious beliefs, not only in the secret depths of our hearts but fully and openly in the public square. Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims have fought side-by-side in our wars. Memorial Day is a celebration of those brave men and women who died securing that freedom for us so that our biggest worry this weekend will be accidentally burning hot dogs on the grill or getting sunburn at the beach, not having our children abducted by terrorists and forced into slavery. America is an exceptional nation because in the history of the world, such freedom has never come so easily as it does for us. Indeed, as Catholics, we owe an eternal debt of gratitude to all those who went before us in the centuries before the United States even existed. As we honor America’s fallen heroes this weekend, let us also keep in our prayers all those who died so that we might practice our faith.
5) 10 August – 1792
During the French Revolution, the 10th of August 1792 marked the last stand of the Bourbon monarchy before the Jacobin reign of terror took control from the more moderate bourgeoisie and slightly less radical Girondins. During the insurrection, the Sans-Culottes stormed the Tuileries Palace in what might be called the Alamo of Catholicism. The Swiss Guards and Royal Musketeers either died where they stood defending the king, or were surrounded, captured, and then massacred in the ensuing weeks along with hundreds of priests and thousands more who refused to submit to the new revolutionary and rabidly atheist government. The sacrifice of the Swiss Guards is memorialized at the Lion Monument in Lucerne.
4) Battle of Vienna – 1683
Undeterred by their earlier defeat in 1529, the Ottomans once again attacked Vienna with the aim of subjugating the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Just as in the earlier siege, the Catholic armies were once again victorious and the city of Vienna was spared from the rapine and pillage of the Turks. Ottoman forces would continue to harass the Habsburgs for more than two centuries until both dynasties collapsed in the aftermath of the First World War, but this marked the last time a Muslim army would invade deep into central Europe. The Pope and other foreign dignitaries hailed the King of Poland, Jan III Sobieski, as the “Savior of Vienna and Western European civilization.”
3) Battle of Lepanto – 1571
Despite the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula, the Muslims still posed a grave threat to Christendom throughout the 16th century. As the Ottomans advanced into Greece and were poised to completely conquer Cyprus, a coalition of Spaniards and Italians joined the Pope and the Knights of Malta in repulsing the Turkish fleet. Numerous historians argue that this battle turned back an existential threat to Western European civilization at a time when the seeds of the Enlightenment, classical liberalism, and scientific inquiry were just beginning to take root. Not only Catholics, but all Americans should be thankful that the West was victorious. A 9th century Byzantine icon carried aboard a ship in the victorious Catholic fleet is now on display at the Basilica San Marco in Venice.
2) Battle of the Milvian Bridge – 312
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have had a dream, but so did Emperor Constantine. On the night before he would fight for his life with his back to the River Tiber, then-pagan Constantine dreamt that his soldiers were carrying strange shields with the Chi and Rho superimposed on their front—the symbol for Christ which continues to this day. By other accounts, the Emperor and all his troops beheld a cross breaking through the clouds. As a result of Constantine’s victory and eventual conversion later in life, the words In Hoc Signo Vinces are now memorialized in the common liturgical abbreviation for the Holy Name of Jesus, IHS, which appears everywhere from the priest’s stole to the emblem of the Jesuits and, by extension, the coat of arms of Pope Francis.
1) Embassy of Leo the Great – 451
The name Attila the Hun still strikes fear into our hearts today. Nevertheless, faced with the barbarian hordes eager to plunder the riches of ancient Rome, Pope Leo the Great stayed calm and rode out to meet the nomadic warrior-king. Whatever Pope Leo said, it convinced Attila to turn back his army, never to return and this greatest of all victories was won by not fighting at all. Sadly, Leo was unable to repeat this astounding feat when the Vandals sacked the eternal city in the year 455, although the first pope to be called “The Great” did succeed in preventing the murder of its inhabitants and the torching of the city which was then customary for those unfortunate enough to be conquered by barbarian hordes.