Arguably, Christianity's both most under recognized hero & military victory over the past thousand years were
Jan Sobieski & his
September 11th 1683 crushing of the Islamists at the gates of Vienna.
Aside from the 9/11 connection, there's a lot of other ironic & other trivia with respect to both the battle & its hero:
While Polish chauvinists would claim this as an almost exclusively "Polish" triumph, Poles - not to slight their highly valued contribution otherwise - actually made up a minority of Sobieski's fighting force; thus making "Vienna 9/11/83" a victory truly belonging to all Christendom.
Ethnic Ukrainians & troops from the Balic area were well represented as were both Scots & Irish forces.
This is the 'Celtic warrior' connection and, yes, it's reported the pipes were appropriately played both during & after the battle.
The significant involvement of the Scots is particularly interesting as it's claimed, a couple of generations later, Jan Sobieski's line intermarried with the legitimate Royal House of Scotland.
Another noteworthy claim is that Sobieski marched his army a full 2 days out of their way while otherwise rushing to lift the siege of Vienna so all could pray before the sacred image of Poland's "Black Madonna" and accordingly afterward credited & dedicated the victory to Our Lady.
At the more mundane level, even the lowly the bagel may well have been invented to honor Sobieski & celebrate the victory. OY !!!
The year is 1565. On the island of Malta, 600 Knights of St. John, commanding a force of some 8000 men, prepare to defend their island fortress from attack.
These same Catholic Knights had been driven from their previous stronghold, the Isle of Rhodes, in 1522, by the Ottoman Turks. Under Suleyman the Magnificent, the Moslems were pressing hard across Arabia, Syria, Iraq, into Egypt and northern Africa, and had established a strong foothold on the north coast of the Black Sea, the gateway to all of Europe itself. In 1526, the Hungarians had been defeated at the Battle of Mohacs, and only the Austrian Habsburgs now stood in the way of the Moslem advance. Vienna came under attack in 1529, but the Moslems were unable to take the capital, and their over-extended campaign failed.
Now, the Turks had raised a fleet of 181 ships, carrying some 30,000 soldiers, and Malta was the prize they sought. Their goal was to plunder and sweep all the ships of Christian Europe from the Mediterranean. Then, in control of the sea lanes and trade routes, with their naval and economic power supreme, all of Europe would be set to fall before them.
The Turkish fleet appeared off the coast of Malta, and laid siege to the island. All through the summer of 1565 the contest for Malta raged. In the end, the Knights of St. John (Knights of Malta) were victorious, and the Turks were forced to withdraw in defeat. It did not, however, end the threat from the Ottoman Turks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1237489/posts