I used to think that the croissant was invented to celebrate Lepanto and the cappuccino for Vienna but now I am assured they were both invented for Vienna. So it seems one can only celebrate having the Turks for breakfast in September. I’m off to a ‘Lepanto‘ recitation party tonight where I will have to make do with wine. The host is reading not reciting. I should really learn it off by heart. I have a friend in New Mexico who can do the full text from memory and puts great zeal into it. Does anyone know of any food or drink associated with Lepanto for future reference? I suppose there is this…. In fact I’ve always got on with Turks I’ve met. I remember a very sad conversation with a drunk Austrian in a bar ten years ago who had married his Turkish sweetheart but couldn’t get citizenship for her for love nor money. We must convert the Turks urgently. They would make great Catholics. I’m sure, if they could be persuaded that the conversion of the Hagia Sophia to a Latin Rite Cathedral would annoy the Greeks far more than it being left as a Mosque or a Museum, then they would be willing to accept baptism. God generally seems to prefer to save Christendom by converting the pagans than by delivering the decadent Christians in battle. I’m happy for the Turks to colonise Europe so long as they are fervent Catholics. I have only recently had opportunity to sample their fine kebabs which on reflection I prefer to the Moroccan variant. In 2003 I spent this feast in Brussels with my friend from New Mexico at a conference. When the talks were finished we tried to find a bar near to where we were staying in which to celebrate the victory but they were all Turkish. So in the end we gave in and celebrated in one of them.
Laodicea 
October 8, 2010 at 12:14 am
I agree! Convert them all, learn their recipes, and let God sort ’em out. Er, something like that. Anyway, convert them all!
October 8, 2010 at 10:01 am
It’s really a handy short poem to know by heart. I am aiming at the Ballad of the White Horse, but never got much farther than the first three books.
October 11, 2010 at 4:30 am
Working on both… Conversion and colonization 🙂
October 11, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I think I’m pretty much in denial with regard to the extent to which Islam actually did spread. The other day I was telling my brother-in-law about this programme I watched that said a major earth quake would hit Constantinople in the next 50 years or so. My sister helpfully pointed out that to most people it had been known as Istanbul for quite a while now….I didn’t even do it on purpose! Perhaps it was a sign that the conversion of Turkey is nigh!
The rosary beads I made recently from my old hematite beads have a centerpiece with Our Lady of Mercy on one side, and St. Peter Nolasco on the other. Very much to the purpose. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11770b.htm
October 11, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Oh, and the programme, which was about major fault lines along which people have always insisted on settling and building major cities due to the many advantages in between earth quakes, also said Hagia Sophia has survived many earth quakes through the years. IOW, it’s a very solid structure they have down there in Miklagard.