Redefeating the Turks: the Battle of Vienna, September 12, 1683

From The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)

King Jan III Sobieski with a gorget of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.

Before he set out, Sobieski had sent a letter to Innocent XI, in which he wrote: “When the good of the Church and Christianity is concerned I shed my blood to the last drop, together with the whole kingdom. Since my kingdom and I are two bulwarks of Christianity”.

To commemorate Sobieski’s victory Pope Innocent XI announced 12 September the day of glory of the Holy Name of Mary, and to show his admiration for the Poles and their king the Pope accepted the sign of the Crowned Eagle into his papal coat of arms.

It is said that Pope Blessed Innocent XI instituted this feast honoring the holy name of Mary, because the Polish winged hussars, in response to the Turks battle cry of “Allah, Allah!” rushed into battle crying “Maria! Maria!” Indeed, the Mother of God showed Her great power that day for King Sobieski utterly routed the Turkish army.

Would that this heroic and faith-filled attitude of King Sobieski and his famed Polish winged hussars be emulated in the great Cultural War that embroils all of the Christian West. Having put “on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8), and praying to God for the courage of King Sobieski and his men, let us charge into this fray–always legally and peacefully–crying “Maria! Maria!”

King John III Sobieski Sobieski sending Message of Victory to the Pope, after the Battle of Vienna painted by Jan Matejko

Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa

Queen of Poland

Prayer (From the Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa, August 26)

Almighty and merciful God, you have wondrously given a constant protection to the Polish nation in the Blessed Virgin Mary and adorned her sacred picture at Jasna Gora with unusual veneration of the faithful. Graciously grant that, having such aid in the battles of our life, we may be victorious over our enemy at the moment of death. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

In 1683 the valiant Polish King Jan Sobieski marched to the gates of Vienna and saved western civilization from being overrun by Moslem hordes. In his message informing Pope Innocent XI that Christendom had been saved, the King wrote, "I came, I saw, God conquered." That sums up very well a thousand years of miraculous Polish history.

In what is arguably one of the most indefensible landscapes in the world, the Polish people have been overrun many times, but the soul of Poland has never been conquered. Their fortress is union with Christ in a nation under the Queenship of His Blessed Mother.

The Polish nation led the overthrow of the most murderous, totalitarian regime of all time. Pope John Paul II termed it a "victory of fidelity": "fidelity to Christ crucified in the moment of your own crucifixion"; fidelity to the Holy Spirit "who led you through the darkness"; fidelity to "Peter's successors and to the successors of the apostles, the bishops"; and "fidelity to the nation which is particularly expressed in solidarity with the persecuted and ... those who seek the truth and love freedom."

The Holy Father charged his countrymen with the task of building a free Church "on the basis of what you have brought to maturity during the years of trial." Today Poland stands alone among the nations of what was once Christendom, in rejecting a new slavery of secular humanism, materialism and hedonism. Forged in the fire of the twentieth century, will she once again be the instrument God uses to save western civilization?

I have been moved to learn about Poland and its role in salvific history, by Pope John Paul II, by the life and martyrdom of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, and by extraordinarily good and loving Polish people who became my best friends when I lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. Those friends and I confronted evil, and with prayer, perseverance, solidarity and hope, we watched as "God conquered."

On this day, commemorated by a Polish language Mass and Jersey City's Polish Festival, I send my love and very best wishes to the Committee for the Defense of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church and all those who helped us. Sto Lat!