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Current 2003 2002 2001 2000 1990s 1980s   Blessed Marco d’AvianoIslam, Nostra Aetate and the Church ApatheticHARRIET MURPHYPART I "He who is not for me, is against me"On 27th April 2003, the Holy Father beatified the seventeenth century Capuchin Friar Marco D’Aviano. In order to honour his valiant defence of the Faith, the countless conversions and miracles he inspired in his own life time, and the incredible graces that he gave to Austria and Vienna, we are firstly going to focus on the current war on truth in the Church and the world, all of which has acquired a...

The Pope yesterday beatified a 17th-century friar credited with halting a Muslim invasion of Europe and in the process gave the world cappuccino coffee. More than 300 years after his death, Marco d'Aviano cleared the last step before sainthood, as the Pope recognised the friar's miraculous work, including curing a nun who had been bedridden for 13 years. When a vast Ottoman Turk army was marching on Vienna in 1683, d'Aviano was sent by the Pope to unite the outnumbered Christian troops. After a prayer meeting led by d'Aviano, they were spurred to victory. As the Turks fled, legend has...

"...When Turkish forces that had already conquered Belgrade besieged Vienna for two months in 1683, D'Aviano, at the behest of Pope Innocent XI, joined the irresolute Leopold outside Vienna, where he strengthened the emperor's resolve, persuaded the divided and outnumbered Christian forces to choose Jan Sobinski, the Polish king, as their leader, and preached to the Catholic-Protestant-Orthodox forces on the importance of defending Christian Europe. On the night of September 11, 1683, the Christians forced the Turks, 20,000 of whose troops had been killed, to raise the siege. "

"When Turkish forces that had already conquered Belgrade besieged Vienna for two months in 1683, D'Aviano, at the behest of Pope Innocent XI, joined the irresolute Leopold outside Vienna, where he strengthened the emperor's resolve, persuaded the divided and outnumbered Christian forces to choose Jan Sobinski, the Polish king, as their leader, and preached to the Catholic-Protestant-Orthodox forces on the importance of defending Christian Europe. On the night of September 11, 1683, the Christians forced the Turks, 20,000 of whose troops had been killed, to raise the siege. "