A little while ago I was blessed enough to travel to the Vatican City, while I was there I took a picture of some Pontifical Swiss Guards. At the time I was like “whooow they actually do wear crazy costume!” I took my picture and moved on. It wasn’t till this morning when I by chance saw that picture, that I started to wonder how these guys ended up where they did. So I went to the Vatican website and decided to do a lil digging.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/swiss_guard/swissguard/storia_en.htm
This page is quite in-depth and full of history, so I combined the information from this website with a few others and thought I’d write a quick sum
mary:
In September 1505, the first contingent of 150 soldiers started their march towards Rome, under the command of Kaspar von Silenen, they entered the city on January 22, 1506, today given as the official date of the Guard’s foundation. Pope Julius II later granted them the title “Defenders of the Church’s freedom” The force has varied greatly in size over the years and has never been disbanded. Its first, and most significant, hostile engagement was on May 6, 1527 when 147 of the 189 Guards, including their commander, died fighting the troops of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the stand of the Swiss Guard during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Pope Clemet VII to escape through the Passetto di Borgo, escorted by the other 40 guards.
The Swiss Guards are responsible for the safety of the Pope, they take an oath of loyalty to him and to the Apostolic Palace (the Pope’s residency). There are certain requirements to become a Swiss Guard. Recruits must be Catholic, single males with Swiss Citzenship and complete basic training with the Swiss military. They have to be between 19 and 30 years of age and even have a height requirement of 174cm. The Swiss Guard still wear the same uniform that was created by Commandant Jules Repond in 1914. There were some websites that speculate that the Swiss Guards are as well trained as the British SAS and Marines but i’m not sure if that is a true fact…
Well I guess we can all sleep at night now knowing our Head of the Church is well protected!!
Bless you all!
Woman at the Well
FaithbookNZ 