85

Between 1860 and 1870, more than 10 000 catholic volunteers came to defend by force of arms the temporal power of Pope Pie IX within a body specially created for them : the Papal Zouaves. Coming from around thirty countries, they answered to the call of the Supreme Pontiff, threatened in his integrity by the troops of the king of Piedmont-Sardinia eager to complete Italian Unity.These ten years were peppered with about ten confrontations only, so, from 1865, a new activity brought them a diversion of choice with the war against banditry. For some, these hard fights in a difficult and steep environment against the highway bandits who raged in mountains around Rome was the main part of their soldier’s life.Besides, another more insidious enemy occupied the Zouaves in 1867 when an epidemic of cholera declared itself to Albano. Numerous Zouaves were mentioned in dispatches for their dedication and this fact appears in the honour roll in the same way as battles.