For three years, Catholic Austria went under the tyrannical rule of communist Russia after World War II. A Franciscan priest named Father Petrus remembered the story of how Christians in the sixteenth century had defeated the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto through the rosary, despite being greatly outnumbered. Father Petrus launched a rosary crusade and 70,000 people pledged to say the rosary daily for the intention of Austria becoming free from Russian rule.
Although Austria was valuable to the Soviets because of its strategic location and rich resources, on May 13, 1955, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, the atheistic Russian regime, in a completely unprecedented move, signed the agreement to leave Austria. Not one person was killed, and not even one shot was fired. Today, historians and Military strategists still cannot explain how or why the Russians pulled out of Austria.
Those devoted to the rosary of Our Holy Mother know exactly the reason. Pray the rosary for world peace!