The Holy Name of Mary

 On September 12, the fifth day within the octave of the Nativity of the Virgin, the feast of the Holy Name of Mary in 1683, the vast army of the Turkish Sultan was defeated at the gates of Vienna after an attempt to sweep across Europe. The King of Poland, Jan Sobieski, had come to the aid of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold, and they attributed the victory to the fact that they had invoked the help of the Mother of God. The triumph, won against overwhelming odds, saved Europe from becoming a Moslem colony. From The Secret History of the Reign of Jan Sobieski:

 The Victory which the King of Poland has obtained over the Infidels, is so great and so complete that past Ages can scarce parallel the fame; and perhaps future Ages will never see any thing like it. All its Circumstances are as profitable to Christendom in general, and to the Empire in particular, as glorious to the Monarch. On one hand we see Vienna besieged by three hundred thousand Turks; reduced to the last extremity; its Outworks taken; the Enemy fixed to the Body of the Place; Masters of one Point of the Bastions, having frightful Mines under the Retrenchments of the besieged: We see an Emperor chased from his Capital; retired to a corner of his Dominions; all his country at the mercy of the Tartars, who have filled the Camp with an infinite number of unfortunate Slaves that had been forcibly carried away out of Austria. On the other hand we see the King of Poland, who goes out of his Kingdom, with part of his Army, and hastens to succor his Allies, who abandons what is dearest to him, to march against the enemies of the Christian Religion willing to act in Person on this occasion, as a true Buckler of Religion; and will not spare his eldest son, the Prince of Poland, whom he carries with him, even in a tender age, to so dangerous an Expedition as this was. That which preceded the battle is no less surprising. The Empire assembles on all sides, the Elector's of Saxony and Bavaria come in person to join their troops with the Imperialists under the command of the Duke of Lorraine. Thirty other Princes repair out of emulation, to one another, to the Army, which nevertheless, before they will enter upon Action, stay for the presence of the King of Poland, whose presence alone is worth an Army. (Read more.) 

"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, as terrible as an army set in array?" Canticle of Canticles 6:9

"And the virgin's name was Mary...." St. Luke 1:27