# From Lepanto to Kalunga: the transfiguration of the Lady of the Rosary into Mameto Kalunga  
Originally, the Rosary devotion bore no relation to African populations and their descendants. This devotion emerged in the early thirteenth century in the context of the struggle against modern 'heresies' (Souza, 2001, p. 382), and was then practically forgotten until the second half of the fifteenth century. During that period the German Dominicans, fearful of the threats posed by the schism that would eventually lead to the Reformation, decided to reinvigorate the devotion revealed to Dominic. In 1475, the first brotherhood of the Rosary was founded in Cologne, Germany (Sousa, 1977, Vol. I, pp. 353-54). After the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571, a confrontation that finally ended the Turkish dominion of the Mediterranean Sea, Our Lady of the Rosary became associated with the struggle of the Catholics against the infidels, 'chosen' as patroness of the new spiritual conquests (Souza, 2001, p. 385). In this offensive context, the Rosary of Our Lady - a devotion held dear by the leading missionary orders in the first centuries of contact - landed in Africa as part of the Portuguese conquests and gradually took on new meanings among Central Africans.  
There were other known devotions during the African conquests, also related to missionary orders. The devotion to Saint Benedict, which has close ties with the Franciscans, was already very popular in Portugal in the early seventeenth century,