lepanto

Ex Cathedra states:

Juditha and Adria are poetic names for the Republic of Venice. [Venice is on the Adriatic Sea.] The music was composed by Vivaldi to celebrate the victory at the siege of Corfù, but I believe it couples well with the victory at Lepanto.

On 7 October, 1571, in the Ionian Sea, the fleet of the Holy League, a joint military force of the major Catholic powers in Southern Europe, met the more numerous Turkish Navy.

Led by Admiral John of Austria, Doges Sebastiano Venier and Augustino Barbarigo of Venice, and Gianandrea Doria of Genoa, and spiritually supported by Pope Pius V, who ordered all able men and women from Europe to pray the Rosary at the time of the battle, the Turk’s coffins were sealed.

If Vienna’s siege stopped them on land, Lepanto stopped them on sea.

Because of these men, Catholic Europe survived.

Salve invicta Juditha Formosa
Patriae splendor spes nostrae salutis.
Summae norma tu vere virtu
Eris semper in mundo gloriosa.
Debellato sic barbaro Trace
Triumphatrix sit Maris Regina.
Et placata sic ira divina
Adria vivat, et regnet in pace.