In 12th and 13th century Spain, Divine Providence raised up men who fought heroically against the Mohammedans; men like Alfonso Henriques, the King of Portugal.
Newsroom (02/10/2023 09:00, Gaudium Press) In those days, Islamists had dominated the south of the Iberian Peninsula for around 350 years; France had ridden themselves of them by the victory of Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732.
Spain at that time was divided into several kingdoms, and some sovereigns made pacts with the Moors. Outraged by these infamous attitudes, Pope Celestine III – whose pontificate lasted from 1191 to 1198 – ordered the kings to suspend wars between themselves, to march against the infidels until they were expelled and “threatened with excommunication anyone who made an alliance with the enemies of the Cross.”
Alfonso VIII: grandfather of two great warrior saints
The King of Castile, Alfonso VIII – grandfather of St. Louis IX, King of France, and St. Ferdinand, King of Castile – launched himself passionately against the infidels, helped in particular by the preaching of Archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada.
At the request of Alfonso VIII, Pope Innocent III – successor to Celestine III – called on Franco-Spanish Catholics to fight against the Saracens. In some regions, the Mohammedans were called Saracens – from the Latin Sara sine – without Sarah. Abraham’s wife was called Sarah, and the Islamists claimed to be descendants not of Sarah, but of Hagar, Abraham’s slave.
Guided by three bishops, the kings of Aragon and Navarre, as well as knights from the south of France, joined the King of Castile near Toledo.
120,000 Saracens were killed. Alfonso VIII himself recounted the events summarised below:
The Catholic armies reached the fortress of Calatrava – the centre of present-day Spain – which was the seat of the military Order of that name and had been taken by the Mohammedans. Protected by deep moats, the fortress had high walls with several towers.
When the Catholics laid siege, the infidels were terrified and surrendered. Shortly afterwards, the French returned home to strengthen the army that the heroic Simon de Montfort was leading in the war against the Albigensians.
Commanded by the kings of Castile, Aragon and Navarre, the Catholics were travelling through gorges where Saracens were hiding and trying to kill them. God then sent an Angel to guide them on their route.
They reached the promontory of Navas de Tolosa, near the present-day city of Jaén in southern Spain, and pitched their tents in the adjacent valley. It was Saturday, 14th July 1212. On Sunday, the sultan, with his large army, put himself in battle order, but Alfonso VIII did not attack them because it was a holy day.
On Monday, with the Cross and a banner depicting Our Lady and the Child Jesus in front of the horsemen, the Catholics approached the Saracens who were launching arrows with the aim of destroying the Cross and the banner.
The Archbishop of Tolosa and other bishops, with ardent words, encouraged the Catholics to advance. They attacked the infidels with such vigour that they crushed them. Led by the sultan, many of them fled. 120,000 Saracens died, while among the Catholics there were 30 casualties.
In praise and thanksgiving to the Creator, a Te Deum was sung.
Alfonso VIII sent the Pope a silk tent and a flag covered in gold, collected from the spoils left by the enemy. Innocent III had the flag raised inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
The sultan had written to the pontiff that, after crushing the Catholics of Spain, he would go to Rome and place his flag on top of the papal basilica, which would be transformed into a stable for his horses.
In the battle of Navas de Tolosa, the knights of the Order of Calatrava stood out for their combativeness.
Military Order of Calatrava
Founded in 1158 by St. Raimundo de Fitero, who had been abbot of the Fitero Monastery in Navarre, northern Spain, the Order settled in the town of Calatrava. Its members took vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, ate meat only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, fasted frequently, kept silence and slept in armour. They wore a white habit with a crimson cross, on the ends of which were painted fleurs-de-lis.
Faced with the Saracens’ advances, the King of Castile, Sancho III declared that he would cede the fortress of Calatrava to whoever would defend it. St Raymond accepted the offer and went there with some other monks. Sancho then sent a battalion of soldiers to help them and the fortress was protected.
But in 1195, attacked by the Mohammedans, they left the fortress and settled in a castle near the Royal City in the centre of Spain.
With the great development of the Order, its members took part in the Battle of Navas de Tolosa and later helped St. Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon (1199-1252), in his always victorious wars against the pagans. The Holy King donated a lot of land to the Order of Calatrava.
In 1164, Alexander III approved it and, in 1199, Innocent III drew up a document in which he listed “about a hundred places, fortresses, churches, etc. that belong to Calatrava in the kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre, Leon, Castile and Portugal. And this number of places and castles grew in the years that followed.”
However, in the Renaissance – with the Order incorporated into the Spanish crown – Paul III, in 1540, eliminated the vow of chastity that the Knights of Calatrava took. It then lost its religious and military spirit.
The memorial of St. Raymond of Fitero – or of Calatrava, according to the martyrology – is celebrated on 15 March.
Dr Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira said:
“The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest Crusade took 900 years, when it should have lasted much less! This happened because of moments of faintheartedness and laxity.
“If those moments hadn’t existed, how much would have happened differently and more magnificently, according to the glory of Our Lady! If the Hispano-Portuguese Crusade had been carried out in a single bound, it would not have stopped at the edge of the Atlantic, but would have crossed the sea and entered Africa with victory! And the whole Mohammedan presence in the Mediterranean would have been different, and with it the history of Europe. When America was discovered, the Mediterranean would be an entirely Christian sea!”
By Paulo Francisco Martos
With Files From Notions of Church History
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
