A Filipino relative beamed with Philippine pride after it was reported that her sister’s grandson was among the elite Pontifical Swiss Guard recruits in Vatican City.
Consuelo Del Castillo on April 18 shared a Facebook post featuring pictures and a video of Davao City-born Sebastian Esai Eco Eviota, a 24-year-old newly-sworn-in member of the world’s smallest army.
“My sister Marietta’s ‘apo’. Proud lola here,” she wrote on Facebook.
In a comment, Del Castillo confirmed to another Facebook user that Eviota is her sister’s grandson.
“He grew up in Surigao after his father brought them (him and his older sister) as very young kids there following his Davaoena mother’s death from cancer,” she wrote.
“He was in high school when he and his sister were brought to Switzerland and we were amazed to learn that he had signed up for the Swiss army and became an officer and even was accepted to the [post] in the Vatican,” De Castillo added.
“I saw them last 2010 in Bern and he was a gangling, quiet kid then, never expecting in my wildest dreams to see him doing service to no less than the head of our church on earth, the Pope himself. Proud lola here!!” she continued.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines reported that Eviota, a full-blooded Filipino, was among the 23 recruits sworn in as a member of the Swiss Guard, a minor armed force and honor guard unit maintained by the Holy See.
The recruits were joined by their families and delegates of the Swiss Confederation and Swiss Bishops in the ceremony held at the Courtyard of Saint Damasus on May 6.
The date commemorates the heroic sacrifice of 147 Swiss Guards who died protecting Pope Clement VII from the troops of a Holy Roman Emperor during the Sack of Rome in 1527.
Meanwhile, the CBCP reported that Eviota was a second lieutenant in the Swiss Army before being admitted to the Swiss Guard in January 2022 to complete his basic training.
“While Eviota is the second Filipino to be included in the Swiss Guards after Swiss-Filipino Vincent Lüthi, whose mother is from Cebu, he is its first member of full Filipino origin,” the news outlet said.
Eviota had reportedly attempted to find a career in the Swiss military, but there were no positions for a young man in a professional army with less than 10,000 regulars.
This was because Switzerland maintains a centuries-old policy of armed neutrality in global affairs.
Eviota then eyed a career as a police or a detective but ultimately decided that it wasn’t for him.
He then turned to the Swiss Guard, the elite and colorfully-dressed force whose main mission is to protect the Pope and guard the Vatican.
The military unit was founded by Pope Julius II in 1506 with the original intention.
Swiss Guards are also tasked to accompany the supreme pontiff on apostolic journeys, guard the accesses to the Vatican City State, protect the College of Cardinals during the vacant see, and perform other services of order and honor.
They are considered one of the world’s highest-skilled marksmen in the world.
