Sanfedisti

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	Southern Italian peasants
Leaders	Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo
Area of operations	southern Italy
Strength	17,000
Allies	Britain
Opponents	Parthenopaean Republic

Sanfedismo (from Santa Fede, "Holy Faith" in Italian) 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), 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.

Ruffo recruited the Sanfedisti in his native Calabria. His recruiting poster of February 1799 reads:

The Sanfedismo movement nominally acted on behalf of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. On January 25, 1799, two days after the proclamation of the Parthenopean Republic, Ferdinand appointed Ruffo, while both were taking refuge in Palermo, Sicily, to act as his vicar-general on the Italian mainland . 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, also bearing the ancient slogan "In hoc signo vinces." It took Ruffo a month to amass a force of 17,000; mostly peasants, but also "bandits, ecclesiastics, mercenaries, looters, devotees, and assassins."

During the campaign, Ruffo corresponded with Ferdinand's agent, Sir John 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 Apulia, and by June had begun a land siege of the city of Naples. In the siege, the Sanfedismo irregulars were supported by a British naval force under the command of Horatio Nelson, for which Ferdinand gave Nelson the title of Duke of Bronte, which Nelson affixed to his signature for the rest of his life. The Parthenopean Republic collapsed on June 19, 1799.