Christopher CheckChristopher Check is the Executive Vice President of the Rockford Institute, which publishes the magazine, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.
He has lectured nationwide on life and family issues, defense, the dangers of modern communication technology, military and Church history, and lives of saints. His interests include the early Christian Martyrs, the Army of the Roman Republic, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Joan of Arc, Henry VIII’s Divorce, the Battle of Lepanto, the Cristeros, and the effect of empire building on the soldier’s soul.
See Mr. Check's biography and endorsements of the Lepanto lecture here.
Lepanto: The
Battle That Saved The Christian West
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Networking Dinner and Lecture
6:00 PM
Speaker: Christopher Check
Maggiano's Little Italy
2001 International
Drive
McLean, Virginia
On October 7, 1571, the most important sea battle in history was fought near the mouth of what is today called the Gulf of Patras, then the Gulf of Lepanto. On one side were the war galleys of the Holy League and on the other, those of the Ottoman Turks, rowed by tens of thousands of Christian galley slaves. Although the battle decided the future of Europe, few Europeans, and even fewer European Americans, know the story, much less how close Western Europe came to suffering an Islamic conquest.
On October 7, 1911, English poet and theologian, G.K. Chesterton honored the battle with what is perhaps the greatest ballad of the 20th Century. He wrote this extraordinary poem while the postman impatiently waited for the copy. It was instantly popular and remained so for years. John Buchan, who later wrote The 39 Steps, wrote to Chesterton in 1915 from the trenches in France, “We shouted your Lepanto to one another today....” Little wonder that the poem’s stirring images would be an inspiration to soldiers locked in a struggle for the soul of Europe. The ballad is no less inspiring today and is more timely than ever, as the West faces the growing threat of Islam.
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© 2008 Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation