| Army of Holy Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ | |
|---|---|
| Participant in revolt against Parthenopaean Republic | |
Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo leading the Sanfedisti in 1799, protected by Saint Anthony |
|
| Active | 1799 |
| Groups | Peasants of the Papal States |
| Leaders | Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo |
| Area of operations |
southern Italy |
| Strength | 17,000 |
| Allies | Russia, Ottoman Empire, Britain |
| Opponents | Parthenopaean Republic |
Sanfedismo (Italian for "Holy Faith") was a popular anti-Republican movement, organized by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, which mobilized peasants of the Papal States against the Parthenopaean Republic in 1799, its aims culminating in the restoration of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples under Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Its full name was the Army of Holy Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Italian: Armate della Santa Fede),[1] and its members were called Sanfedisti.
The terms "Sanfedismo" and "Sanfedisti" are sometimes used more generally to refer to any religiously-motivated, improvised peasant army that sprung up on the Italian peninsula to resist the newly created French client republics.[2]
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Ruffo recruited the Sanfedisti in his native Calabria. The recruitment manifesto of February 1799 reads:
The Sanfedismo movement nominally acted in the name of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.[4] Ruffo was deputized by Ferdinand, while both were taking refuge in Palermo, to act as his vicar-general on the Italian mainland on January 25, 1799, two days after the proclamation of the Parthenopean Republic.[5] Ruffo landed in Calabria on February 7 with no money or weapons and only eight companions, but bearing a banner with the royal arms on one side and a cross on the other, with the inscription "In hoc signo vinces."[5] It took Ruffo a month to amass a force of 17,000;mostly peasants, but also "bandits, ecclesiastics, mercenaries, looters, devotees, and assassins."[5]
During the campaign, Ruffo corresponded with Ferdinand's agent, Sir Henry Acton, updating him on the military progress of the Sanfedisti:
By the end of April, the Sanfedisti had subdued the entirety of Calabria and most of Puglia, and began a land siege of Naples in June.[5] In the siege, the Sanfedismo irregulars were supported by a British naval force under the command of Horatio Nelson,[7] for which Ferdinand gave Nelson the title of Duke of Bronte, which Nelson affixed to his signature for the rest of his life.[1] The Parthenopean Republic collapsed on June 19, 1799.
Most of the Sanfedisti victories occurred in rugged terrain, which was "well-suited" to the irregular style of warfare employed by Ruffo.[8]
Similar to other anti-French uprisings in Italy, the Sanfedisti carried out pogroms of Jews, who were perceived as supporters of the Enlightenment ideology.[9] Furthermore, Bishop Giovanni Andrea Serrao, the Jansenist leader in southern Italy and a supporter of the Parthenopaean Republic, was summarily executed on February 24, 1799 by the soldiers of the Potenza guard, as Ruffo's forces were drawing near to the city.[10]
The role of Cardinal Ruffo in the movement was a contemporary source of controversy, attributing to Ruffo both cruelty and bloodlust; apologist writings defending him are only extant with respect to the sack of Altamura.[6] The name of Sanfedismo itself was a source of criticism, dubbed "a word sprung up, by which this new phase of wickedness might be called" by a contemporary.[11] Sanfedismo, and Ruffo himself, became synonymous with the "recalcitrant, truly counter-revolutionary clergy" as opposed to those who were more sympathetic to the French Revolution.[12] The name "Sanfedisti" was also used by Bourbonist peasant uprisings against the House of Savoy during Italian unification.[13]
The Canto dei Sanfedisti is still remembered by heart among many in the Mezzogiorno, and sometimes sung by folk groups. It is a parody of La Carmagnole, a popular French Revolutionary song.
Later scholarly views of the Sanfedisti have dubbed them a "counter-revolutionary" group, but not homogeneously a "reaction[ary]" one.[14]