It is the smallest army of the world: the Swiss Guard, which since 1506 guards the Pope in Rome. On Saturday 4 October, Ambassador Martin Selmayr attended as EU Ambassador to the Holy See and part of the diplomatic corps, the swearing-in ceremony of 27 new Swiss Guards by Pope Leo XIV - the first Pope to do so in nearly 60 years. 

Candidates for the Swiss Guard have to be single males, at least 1.74m tall, practicing Catholics, to have completed their compulsory military service in Switzerland and sign on for minimum of two years. 

The ceremony was held in the Vatican’s St Damascus Courtyard and was attended also by the Swiss President Keller Sutter and by Maja Riniker, President of the Swiss National Council.