It is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (above), which was established on the anniversary of a famous victory of Catholic forces against the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Because the outcome of the battle was uncertain, Pope Pius V called on Europeans to pray the rosary for victory.
Desmond Tutu, the first black Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, was born today in 1931 to a poor, Xhosa-speaking family. As a young man he joined the Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, where Trevor Huddleston, who was the priest and an activist against apartheid, changed the course of his life.
Mother Teresa established the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, today in 1950.
William Laud, who became Archbishop of Canterbury under King Charles I, was born in Reading, England, today in 1573. He was uncompromising and severe in the way he imposed ritualism on the Church, and was eventually tried and executed by Parliament in 1645.
Cristóbal de Morales, the outstanding Spanish Renaissance composer, died sometime close to this date in 1553, in Marchena, Andalusia. A tenor in the Sistine Chapel choir for many years, Morales became internationally famous for his many masses and motets, which were often fiendishly difficult to perform.
It is the feast of St Osgyth, the 7th century English saint. She is a member of an exclusive club of saints, the cephalophoric saints, who performed the feat of walking with their heads in their hands after being beheaded.
Image: Lawrence OP