Background

In 1571, Pope Pius V organized a coalition of forces from Spain and smaller Christian kingdoms, republics and military orders, to rescue Christian outposts in Cyprus, particularly the Venetian outpost at Famagusta which, however, surrendered after a long siege on 1 August before the Christian forces set sail. On 7 October 1571, the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, sailed from Messina, Sicily, and met a powerful Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory,^[5][6] and led a rosary procession in Rome.^[3] Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory in order to commemorate the victory at Lepanto, which he attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[3]

After about five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece, the combined navies of the Papal States, Venice and Spain managed to stop the Ottoman navy, slowing the Ottoman advance to the west and denying them access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas.^[7] If the Ottomans had won, there was a real possibility that an invasion of Italy could have followed so that the Ottoman sultan, already claiming to be emperor of the Romans, would have been in possession of both New and Old Rome.^[8] Combined with the unfolding events in Morocco where the Sa'adids successfully spurned the Ottoman advances, it confined Turkish naval power to the eastern Mediterranean. Although the Ottoman Empire was able to build more ships, it never fully recovered from the loss of trained sailors and marines, and was never again the Mediterranean naval power it had become the century before when Constantinople fell.^[7]

In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast to Feast of the Holy Rosary, to be celebrated on the first Sunday of October.^[9] The Dominican friar Juan Lopez in his 1584 book on the rosary states that the feast of the rosary was offered "in memory and in perpetual gratitude of the miraculous victory that the Lord gave to his Christian people that day against the Turkish armada".^[10]

In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI, after the victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene in the Battle of Petrovaradin on 5 August 1716 (the feast of Our Lady of the Snows), commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal church.^[2]

Leo XIII raised the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary". On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of Our Lady. This has been called the "Portiuncula" of the Rosary.

Pius X in 1913 changed the date to 7 October, as part of his effort to restore celebration of the liturgy of the Sundays. In 1960 under Pope John XXIII it is listed under the title Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary; and under the 1969 liturgical reforms of Pope Paul VI Our Lady of the Rosary is mentioned as a mandatory memorial.^[11]

• 
  Our Lady of the Rosary by Anthony van Dyck, between 1623 and 1624
• 
  The Vision of Saint Dominic by Bernardo Cavallino, 1640
• 
  Our Lady of Victory by Józef Mehoffer, 1896–1897, stained glass window in Fribourg Cathedral

Churches dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary

Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fátima, Portugal

• The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fátima, Portugal – part of the Sanctuary of Fátima
• The Chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary in Puebla City, Mexico – built between 1531 and 1690^[12][13][14]
• The cathedral for the Diocese of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio
• The cathedral of Duluth, Minnesota^[15]
• The cathedral of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California^[16]
• The church of Our Lady of the Rosary in New York City – began in 1883 as the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the protection of Irish immigrant girls^[17]
• A sanctuary in Buenos Aires – ^[18]
• Our Lady of the Rosary church in Jashpur, India – the second largest church in Asia, accommodating 10,000 worshippers^[19]
• The Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Vancouver, British Columbia
• Our Lady of the Rosary church in New Orleans – first mass held was held on Christmas of 1907
• The Diocese of Westminster's Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary – in St Dominic's Priory Church in north London^[20]
• Our Lady of the Rosary church in Greenville, South Carolina^[21]
• Shuangshu Church in Tianjin, China

Churches named for Our Lady of Victory

Although the title Our Lady of Victory has been superseded to some extent by that of Our Lady of the Rosary, the former is still in popular use at a number of parishes and schools.

• Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris is an historic Marian shrine and place of pilgrimage. Augustinian friars built it between 1629 and 1740 with financial assistance from Louis XIII, who named the church Notre-Dame des Victoires in gratitude for the victory of French forces over the Huguenots at the Siege of La Rochelle (1627–28).^[22]
• The Church of Our Lady of Victory (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné) in Prague houses the 16th-century Infant Jesus of Prague.
• Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, San Francisco was founded in 1856 to serve French Catholic immigrants to California. In 1887, Pope Leo XIII signed the decree putting l'Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires in charge of the Marists, and making it a French National Church. The church was rebuilt in 1915 after the earthquake and fire of 1906, and was declared an historical landmark in 1984.
• Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica is located in Lackawanna, New York.^[23]
• Our Lady of Victory is the cathedral church for the Diocese of Victoria, Texas.^[24]
• The church of Our Lady of Victory, also known as the War Memorial Church, in the financial district of Manhattan, New York City, was dedicated to Our Lady of Victory by Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York and apostolic vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces on June 23, 1947 " ... in Thanksgiving for Victory won by our valiant dead, our soldiers' blood, our country’s tears, shed to defend men’s rights and win back men’s hearts to God."^[25]
• The chapel at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota, is named for Our Lady of Victory, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[26]
• St. Mary of Victories Hungarian Catholic Church is located in St. Louis, Missouri.^[27] St. Mary's was built in 1843, and is the second oldest Catholic Church within the city limits. Originally home to German immigrants, the parish became home to the Hungarian Community in 1957 and is the official Hungarian Church for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
• Our Lady of Victories, Kensington is located in London. The Church was at one point the Pro-Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Westminster, and was heavily bombed in World War II.
• The Chapel of Our Lady of Victory, an abandoned 18th-century chapel located in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Brazil^[28]
• Our Lady of Victory Parish, is located in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, Philippines^[29]
• Our Lady of Victory Church, a 19th-century church in Hebei District, Tianjin, China. It is one of the oldest churches in the city.
• Our Lady of Victory Cathedral, a 20th-century cathedral in Xiashan District, Zhanjiang, China.