In 1860, as Italy unified, an army of European nobles and volunteers defended Pius IX and the Papal States. In “The Thousand of Pius IX” Alfio Caruso tells the forgotten story of the papal soldiers, between faith, identity and the birth of the Italian nation.
Let’s take a trip back in time. We are in 1860, among the ranks of the Piedmontese army. «A few hours before invading the Papal States, the general Enrico Cialdinileader of the besiegers, thus incited his men against the Pope’s fighters: “Soldiers, I am leading you against a gang of drunken foreigners who, thirsting for gold and longing for plunder, have drawn into our towns. Fight, disperse inexorably…” This was echoed by the general Manfredo Fanti who defined the papal army as “foreign gangs without a homeland and without a home”.
Now, the Risorgimentoists did one description of the soldiers who defended the State of the Church identical to that of Cialdini and Fanti, and therefore rather ungenerous. However, it seems that things were a little different. Although, of course, we must be happy and proud that the Piedmontese soldiers won and that Italy has finally become a real nation on a geographical level and not only on a linguistic and cultural level.
“The Thousand of Pius IX”: the book by Alfio Caruso
Alfio Caruso therefore writes The Thousand of Pius IX (Diarkos edition), an essay in which he describes the turbulent decade that saw Italy unify under the tricolor. In that period of internal strife, a composite and determined army took up arms to defend Pius IX and the temporal power of the Church.
Whether the popes defended a right or wrong cause is another matter. Certainly, it was not a Brancaleone army of drunkards or mercenaries who fought for the State of the Church, nor of simple adventurers. No. To take risksand in many cases to lose out the skin were princes, counts, dukes and barons from all over Europe. Dutch, German, Irish and even some Italian soldiers, united by faith and hostility towards the new Italy, which they considered prey to Freemasonry and an enemy of the Catholic tradition.
Roman nobility and fears for the end of papal power
The Roman nobility thought that the Savoy army it would have represented an extremist turning point against the power of the Pope. And above all that would have pulverized the positions they had acquired over the centuries. A thought similar to that of the Prince of Salina, the great protagonist of the timeless masterpiece “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Among the “terrified” nobles was the Prince Alessandro Torloniaowner of a tenth (25 thousand hectares) of the immense Roman countryside.
However, we must be balanced. Those who opposed the Piedmontese were certainly not spotless and fearless crusaders, in heroic defense of the Holy Sepulcher at any cost. There were those who enlisted out of hate, those for money, like several German and Dutch veterans. For manyHowever, the push to take up the arquebus actually came from faith. And “from the attachment to the person of the Holy Father, whose dogmatic rigidities so detested by his adversaries represented the glue of Catholic intransigence”, as the author explains.
The European volunteers who defended Pius IX
In this climate the indissoluble nucleus of loyalists of the Pontiff: a thousand men who will put their lives on the line to defend Pius IX from the Italy of Savoy and Garibaldi.
Extraordinary it was heterogeneous composition of the papal army. Yes, because for the first time in history the Bavarian blacksmith fought alongside the French count, the Italian student with the Irish farmer, the former Flemish seminarian with the American bison hunter.
The conquest of Rome and the birth of united Italy
In fact, with the conquest of Rome, Italy was geographically complete. North and South finally united. And as Italians, we must be proud of it. Yet, there were those who, wrongly, in the name of the Pope, kept their distance. The Colonel Achille Azzanesifor example, was insulted on 8 December 1870 in St. Peter’s Square while praising Pius IX during the solemn functions in glory of the Immaculate Conception. He decided to retire to private life, feeling like a stranger in his own home.
The truth is that Italy, as a common feeling of its people, was born only after the First World War. True unity, feeling part of something bigger than a city or a region. For this to happen, it was necessary for a Venetian, an Abruzzo and a Sicilian to fight together in the trenches for a common homeland. It was there that Italy was truly born.
