When they sign up, the guards must be practising Roman Catholics, Swiss citizens, aged between 19 and 30, measure at least 1.47 metres tall and be single ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. At the age of 88, Pope Francis died on the morning of Monday, April 21. The pontiff had spent the better part of the year at ...

It takes over an hour to don the colourful uniform of the pope's Swiss Guards, and new recruits soon discover they cannot buckle up armour weighing 15 kilogrammes by themselves. Jeremy and Paul, whose ...

34 new recruits to the Swiss Guard will be sworn in on Monday by Pope Francis. We visited the barracks of the famous papal army. The Swiss Guard barracks in the heart of the Vatican are a hive of ...

Armor like a knight on horseback. A helmet with bright-colored plumes sticking out. Wide blue and gold-striped pants that can seem almost clown-like. The Swiss Guard, the pope's iconic bodyguards, ...

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — With a determined gaze, Renato Peter clenched the flag of the Swiss Guard in his fist while holding up three fingers of his other hand in a salute to the Holy Trinity. When called ...

Forty new Swiss Guards were sworn in at the Vatican on Saturday, the latest halberd-clutching soldiers of the pope to serve a tradition stretching back 500 years. A tourist magnet for centuries at the ...

VATICAN CITY (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 St Peter's ...

Halberds in hand, their armour polished and multicoloured pantaloons perfectly pressed, 36 new recruits to the Swiss Guards were sworn in on Friday with a vow to protect the pope. Pope Francis had ...

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 88, ...