“Would that all believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and were ready to die a thousand times for him.” – Blessed Antonio Primaldo
On August 14, 1480, 800 survivors of the Siege of Otranto were martyred by the Muslim armies of Mohammed II (also known as Mehmed II), the Ottoman leader who had conquered Constantinople 28 years earlier. Their crime? They refused to renounce their faith in Christ. It is amazing how much of our own history that we in the West are ignorant of, even geeks like myself. I know the story of the fall of Constantinople and the seemingly miraculous victories at Lepanto and Vienna, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of Otranto. Thanks to Alfredo Mantovano‘s article this story of how Muslim armies invaded Italy seeking to capture Rome and crush Christendom in the West gives me something to start with for further study on my own. Otranto appears to have been the Thermopylae or Alamo of the late 15th century. Picture this: a very large Muslim army lands at the city gates bent on conquest. Only 400 guards man the walls, most of whom slip away and flee in terror leaving the city’s inhabitants to defend themselves which they did quite spiritedly. After a long siege, the Muslims successfully breech the walls and slaughter most of the people left inside. The surviving males above the age of 15 are given the choice of converting — tempted to do so by an apostate Catholic priest who abandoned the faith to save his skin — or death. 800 souls chose the latter and were martyred. Their sacrifice gave the bickering and divided Italians the time to regroup and save their own lands, arguably all of Christian Europe as well, from being conquered. A fascinating and inspiring story and while some folks might find the comparison to be extreme, Mantovano compellingly exhorts the West to draw a lesson from this massacre:
When the inhabitants of Otranto found themselves facing the Ottoman scimitars, they did not find in the disinterest of their kings a reason to quit themselves; strong in the culture in which they had been raised, although many of them had never learned the alphabet, they were convinced that resisting and not abjuring the faith was the most natural choice. Try talking today with a Western soldier who has returned from a mission in Iraq or Afghanistan: what one hears most frequently is their amazement at the discussions and the endless disagreements over our presence in those regions. For these soldiers, it is natural that they should go to help those in need of support, and guarantee the security of reconstruction against terrorist attacks.
In Otranto in 1480, no one displayed rainbow pacifist flags, nor invoked international resolutions, nor asked for a meeting of the municipal council so that the zone might be declared as demilitarized; no one chained himself beneath the city walls to “construct peace.”
For two weeks, the fifteen thousand inhabitants of the city boiled oil and water, until they had none left, and poured it over the walls onto the assailants. And when the eight hundred adult men still alive were captured, they went willingly to meet the same fate that the Iraqis, Afghans, Americans, English, Italians, and others meet in Iraq and Afghanistan when they are kidnapped by terrorists. Eight hundred heads were cut off one after another, with no politically correct newsmen to censor the account. If today we have thorough knowledge of this extraordinary event, it is because those who described it were objective and rigorous. (Chiesa)
— John (Average Gay Joe)
John, even though I’m always saying the Islamists have been at war with us for 14 centuries, I’d never heard of Otranto either. Thank you for an informative post.
Very well-written, Average Gay Joe. My ancestors in the Mediterranean were not only victims of the 1453 siege at Constantinople, but also the “ethnic cleansing” (read: catastrophe) of Smyrna when the Muslims killed the Christians. Some viruses never die.
To this day, I repeat the same mantra that fell from the lips of people like Ari Onassis (whose father escaped death in Smyrna), Bishop Germanos of Messolonghi and others who fought to stay alive and not convert to Islam:
“I WILL NOT SUBMIT!”
Regards,
Peter H.
I am reminded of the Columbine killers who forced a girl at gunpoint to choose between God and saving her own life. They were regarded as psychotic killers, yet a mass movement of Islamists forcing the same choice on Western Civilization are treated as people with a legitimate point of view. And year by year, concession by concession (foot baths, moral equivalence, no-go Muslim neighborhoods, restrictions on free speech that “offends” Islamists), western culture capitulates. And if it is not the literal God we are willing to deny in order to capitulate to Islamists, then it is the secular principles of free speech, women’s rights, and individual conscience that we would rather give up than die defending.
I think many on the left assume that they are safe in their padded secular room, and if Islam takes over, they will just ignore it as they ignore Christianity. Or, in the case of gays and Europeans, since they reason the Islamic takeover will happen beyond their own lifetimes and they have no children to suffer under it, they simply don’t see a reason to fight it.
Screw them. I second Pete’s Notion. I WILL NOT SUBMIT!
My maternal grandmother’s parents were born in Aleppo (now Syria) which was part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1890s. They left, mostly because of the persecution of nonMuslim citizens. Even though my great grandfather lived until I was 23, I didn’t learn much about how things were like, because he never learned English (only spoke Arabic) and I wasn’t interested then. Now that I am, not sure if anyone is left in my family who would know about this. Even though Aleppo is not part of the Ottoman Empire anymore, it doesn’t look like things are better now as city in Syria.
So well expressed, AGJ. Thank you.
We have little to relate to it today. Perhaps Stalingrad, London, Warsaw, Singapore, Nanking. But even adding those examples, few acknowledge the heroism or the horrors.
(And how many of those Muslims were janissaries; kidnapped, purchased, or taken hostage in childhood to serve the sultans?)
#3
I honestly believe the liberals wil just try to be friends with them in the hopes they won’t be beheaded with a scimitar. The dirty secret is that the snivelling liberals would be the first to go.
Diplomacy is saying “nice doggie” while groping about for a nice, big rock. – Tallyrand
(or words to that effect.)
It is a very inspiring peice of history, unfortunately today liberals would condemn the slaughtered as the religious zealots. It’s like the way they spin the Muslim invasion of Spain as golden age when every lived as equals and that Isabella’s Reconquista of her country was anti-civilization at best. I guess imperialism is ok when perpetrated by Muslims.
Nicely written. I read a study once that said that people going through a divorce tend to only have bad memories about their marriage. That is to say, they can’t remember anything good about their spouse or their initial romance and tend to concentrate on the bad memories. Though I am clearly not the scholar you are, I see the same thing with Western Civilization and Christianity. As a Christian, I can accept the awful things people have done in the name of our belief system, but I feel that people who aren’t believers will not accept many of the fantastic things that were done in the name of our belief system. It’s sad really.