Pieter Jong was born on February 24, 1842, in the Netherlands in the small village of Lutjebroek. Over 3000 Dutchmen joined the Papal Zouaves between 1860-1870. Jong joined the Papal Zouaves on February 4, 1866. On his registration form is written: "A guy built like a tree!" In Rome a special large uniform had to be made for him.
Pieter Jong clubbed 14 Red Shirts to
death at the Battle on Montelibretti
On February 21, 1866, shortly after he arrived in the Papal States, Jong sent a letter from his post in Velletri to his family describing an encounter he had with Bl. Pope Pius IX.
Beloved Mother, Brothers and Sisters,
We went to Rome on leave. When we got to the Vatican there were eight more of us, and when we saw His Holiness our hearts were trembling with such a soft and affable countenance. He looks like a man of fifty years old.
He asked where we came from and then we said, "From Holland, Holy Father," he began to smile affably. “Ha, Dutchmen!” he said, and we each got a silver medal and he gave us his blessing, and told us to write directly to our families that he had blessed them all.
He spent the next year training and preparing with the Papal Zouaves for an inevitable attack from the Italians.
The last letter he sent to his mother was from Rome on September 22, 1867.
You wrote that You would like to see me come home in my Zouave uniform.
It would be strange to you, but a beautiful sight nonetheless. We shall not run ahead of time; something could still happen. Nobody knows what it will be.
Something did happen. In October 1867 Garibaldi invaded the Papal States with 10,000 Red Shirts hell bent on seizing Rome and deposing the Pope, the so-called "shame and plague of Italy.”
A Company of 90 Papal Zouaves commanded by Lieutenants Guillemin and Quelen Were tasked with liberating the town of Montelibretti, a fortified village with gates that had been seized by 1200 Red Shirts a few nights before, which laid only 46km from Rome.
Starting at 1730, the fighting quickly intensified and evolved into hand to hand combat by the village gate. Lieutenant Guillemin was one of the first killed. Jong was slain after killing 14 Garibaldians.
A comrade described his last moments:
Bareheaded and with his uniform torn to ribbons, he was seen dealing fearful blows with the butt-end of his musket until, breathless with fatigue, though unwounded, he fell upon his knees and was pierced by a dozen bayonets.
Lieutenant Quelen also fought bravely to the end. Fortunately, their heroic sacrifices were not in vain. By 2000 the Zouaves gained control of the area just outside the gate.
Fearing for their lives, the Garibaldians inside the village closed and reinforced the gate, leaving a number of their comrades outside who were slain by the Zouaves. At 0400 the next day, the Papal Zouaves were about to withdraw when the villagers opened the gate and announced that the Garibaldians had fled during the night.
The battle was over and Montelibretti was back in the hands of the Pope. The company of 90 Papal Zouaves successfully defeated the much larger force of 1200 Red Shirts.
The 1867 campaign ended in a Papal victory when Garibaldi was forced to retreat back to Italian soil after the battle of Mentana on November 3, 1867.
The story of Pieter Jong spread through the ranks of the Zouaves and helped with recruitment efforts in the Netherlands. Jong became a local hero, with songs and books written about him. There was even a street sign was named after him.
In 1917 a monument of him was placed outside the Church in Lutjebroek. The monument reads:
Pieter Jong died a heroic death in Monte Libretti
He died for the Pope
The cause of the Pope
Is the cause of God"
To this day the villagers of Lutjebroek keep the memory of Pieter Jong alive.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Bl. Pius IX, pray for us!
By Brendan Cassell (Papal Zouave History @PapalZouaveUS)
