Promo Video from Czech Association of the SMOM

English Post - Knights Battle to Defend Rhodes

The English Post in the siege of Rhodes was named for the English knights who were responsible for defending that portion of the walls of the city. It was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting. Twice the knights lost it and twice they won it back. The tenaille is on the left and the main wall is further is visible in the background further behind it.  On the right of the wide dry ditch is the counterscarp that the attackers had to climb down before storming the city wall. The ditch is enfiladed by the Tower of St. John, its bulwark and lower wall providing vertically stacked fields of overlapping fire. The stone cannon balls seen in the ditch are remnants from the fighting. To experience first hand the history of the Knights of St. John please join us on a tour to the beautiful islands of Rhodes and Crete next September. For more information visit MedSeas Catholic Journeys.

Photo courtesy of Norbert Nagel.

Angelus Prayer for the Crusades

Most people know that the Angelus is recited at three particular times during the day; 6 am, 12 noon, and 6 pm and during the Easter Season, the Angelus is replaced by the Regina Caeli, a practice first instituted in 1743.

But how many know that the origins of the Angelus is with an 11th century custom of reciting three Hail Mary's during the evening bell which Pope Gregory IX (d 1241) ordered to be rung in order to remind people to pray for the Crusades. Later Pope Callistus III (1455-1458) commended the practice as a prayer for protection against the Turkish invasions of his time. By the sixteenth century the form of the prayer was standardized and it has been highly popular since the 17th century. 

http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Cotidiana/Angelus.html