The Swiss Guard is a military body tasked with protecting the pope. 135 men make up the Swiss Guard. Swiss Guard recruits must be a single man between the age of 19-30 who is a practicing Catholic ...

Wide blue and gold-striped pants that can seem almost clown-like. The Swiss Guard, the pope’s iconic bodyguards, look ceremonial but in the pageantry of the Renaissance-style uniform lies the ...

For almost three decades, the Swiss Guard uniforms have been crafted ... To protect the stitching on the cape from sweat erosion, a niggling problem, Cicioni added lining — his only significant ...

Swiss Guards stand in formation at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on Thursday, after the conclave elected Cardinal Robert Prevost as the next pope. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images ...

The mission of the Swiss Guard, the oldest military corps in the world, is to ensure the security of the pope and protect the cardinals when the chair of Peter is vacant. But what happens when the ...

The world’s smallest army is still recruited from Swiss towns and villages. ROME -- Thirty-four new Swiss Guard recruits pledged their traditional oath in the Vatican on Monday and swore ...

VATICAN CITY, May 8 (Reuters) - Maximilian Fischer, 20, is one of the new recruits to an institution that has been protecting popes since the 16th century - the Swiss Guard. Known to tourists in ...

As the late Pope Francis greeted thousands of guests in Vatican City on Easter Sunday, the Swiss Guard was not far, watching over the pontiff as it has done for more than 500 years. At the age of ...