Lepanto!

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Read the rest of "Lepanto," by G.K. Chesterton

Until the 20th century, today's feast was known as "Our Lady of Victory." It's difficult to overstate how delirious with joy was the whole of Christendom at the Ottoman Turks' defeat; even Protestant nations like England celebrated the triumph of the Christian League, thanks to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.