On the twelfth of September 1683, the Turkish army was finally
turned away from the city of Vienna. Among the things they left
behind were the cannons with which they had bombarded the city
through the long siege. The people of Vienna decided that those
cannons could be put to a better use. So they melted them down
and used the metal to cast a great bell. Then they mounted that
enormous bell in the tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral in the
heart of the city. It rang for more than two hundred years
calling people to the worship of God. The cannons of war became
a bell of peace. It was a unique and dramatic way of beating
swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. To receive
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