A New History of the Unrecognized Martyrs of the Christian Militia Orders, by Casey Chalk

When it comes to saints who were also soldiers, the list is relatively short. There is St. Louis IX, the medieval king of France, who fundraised and led two crusades against the Muslim kingdom in northern Africa. St. Joan of Arc rallied the French people to resist the rapacious brutality of the English and paid for her patriotism by being falsely accused of heresy. St. John of Capistrano, the Franciscan “Soldier Saint” and patron saint of military chaplains, led a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Serbia.

And yet, since the Roman emperor Constantine legalized and patronized Christianity, our Faith has regularly been tied up with men (and some women) willing to fight and die to protect the Faith. Indeed, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, which the Church celebrates every October 7th, commemorates the victory at Lepanto, where the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic states, defeated an invading Ottoman navy whose ultimate purpose was to further Muslim conquests deep into Italy and beyond. …

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