Swiss Guard: Their Finest Hour, So Far

Whether they're called the Swiss Guard, Papal Swiss Guard, or Pontificia Cohors Helvetica, those 135 men wear what may be today's most colorful full dress uniforms.

Although they look like something straight out of the Renaissance, the uniform's not much over a century old.

Up until 1914, when Pope St. Pius X died, each pope had tweaked the design a bit. Maybe because our next Pope, Benedict XV, came on duty about the same time that World War I started, the Swiss Guard's then-commander, Jules Repond, did the uniform redesign. Or authorized it, at any rate.

I gather that the blue, red, and yellow stripes are Medici family colors. The Basque hat reflects Swiss Guard uniforms painted by Raphael.¹ And none of that's what I was going to be talking about today.

• Background: Vatican by the Tiber —
  • Popes, 16th Century Politics —
  • And Unpaid Troops
• May 6, 1527: Death and Honor —
  • Remembering the Rearguard: 147 Against 20,000 —
• Reputations —
  • And Raphael

More at A Catholic Citizen in America.

(Death, honor, and an incident during the 1527 Sack of Rome. Popes, 16th century politics, and reputations. Two millennia, rough patches, and me.)