(ZENIT News / Los Angeles, 02.11.2024).- Mel Gibson gave an interview to LifeSiteNews, in which he revealed that he is working on a television series about the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. The siege ended in the decisive battle of Lepanto in 1751, in which Christianity halted the Muslim conquest of Christian lands.
Henry Sire, former member of the Order of Malta and author of The Dictator, commented on the battle of 1565, in which the Knights of Saint John resisted the siege of Sultan Soliman for four months.The importance of the battle is due to the fact that Soliman decided to attack the Knights of Saint John or Hospitaller Orden, founded in 1084, expelling them from the Island of Rhodes in 1522, allowing them to withdraw with honour from the war. They established themselves in Malta.
In further conquests, Soliman destroyed Hungary, threatened Vienna and sent his armada to the Western Mediterranean as a great threat to Christian Europe.
Gibson shared with Moviesweb.com some additional details of the project: it is “a limited television series about the siege of Malta, which is an incredible story, and there is only one place to film that. I mean, Malta “is where it happened in these forts where 700 Knights defended Malta against the Turks’ attacks. Soliman sent 40,000 men and ships and yet, the Knights won. So it was quite crazy.”
Father Zacharias Portelli, of Maltese origin, explained that “the key of this victory was the dedication of the Knights of Saint John, a Religious Order of soldiers founded at the time of the Crusades to fight for the Christian cause against the Muslim enemy.” The Knights to care of the sick and groups of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over time, they assumed a military character in face of the Muslims’ armed attacks.
The Ottomans won the Island of Rhodes from the Order of Knights of Saint John in 1522, but Emperor Charles ceded it to the Knights in 1530, in order to defend that strategic point.
The Knights were not keen to accept Malta given its dry landscape, drizzle and open scrubland. However, it had large ports on the north side where they could dock their fleet. The Ottomans attacked Malta in 1551, but they desisted in face of the Knights firmness, who saw themselves as defenders of Christendom, in addition to being carers of the sick and pilgrims.
A group of Spanish soldiers in the San Telmo Fort knew they were going to die: the forces defending Malta numbered 6,500 people, with some 500 Knights, whereas the Ottoman forces numbered 50,000 men. The defense of the Island with thick stone bastions and fortresses lacked powder but had much heartfelt faith.
After incessant prayers, on September 8, Feast of the Most Holy Virgin May’s Nativity, the Ottomans gave up and moved away. They had suffered great losses and had few provisions.
The siege having ended, top officials of the Order offered copious thanks to the Lord. The Grand Master celebrated a solemn Te Deum. The Order of Saint John never again faced a battle of such magnitude as the Great Siege, although it supported the Battle of Lepanto of 1571, which implied the naval decline of the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. The Knights of Saint John governed Malta up to 1798.
