The Knights of the Apocalypse was a secret society created in Italy in 1693. It was founded by Agostino Gabrino, the son of a merchant of Brescia to defend the Catholic Church against the expected Antichrist. The organization was accused by contemporaries of having political motives.
Gabrino was responsible for two notable disruptions of church ceremonies in 1693. One occurred on Palm Sunday 1693, when Garino rushed then alter of St Peter's at Rome with a sword. He yelled Ego sum Rex Gloriae ("I am king of glory") as he attacked the alter, a response to the choir's chants of Quis est iste Rex Gloriae? ("Who was that king of Glory?"). He also disturbed public worship at the church of St. Salvator. Though Gabrino was treated as a madman and confined in a madhouse, the society flourished until one member, a woodcutter, denounced it to the Inquisition, leading to the arrest of eighty knights.
Though chiefly mechanics, tradesmen and labourers, members always carried their swords, even when at work. They also wore a star on their breasts with seven rays, a tail, and surrounded by a golden thread forming a circle representing the globe. The tail of the star represented the sword seen by St. John in the Apocalypse. Gabrino styled himself monarch of the Holy Trinity. He was credited by his enemies with a desire to introduce polygamy and has been accused of an intended rebellion against the papal government. His knights were to instructed to only marry pure virgins.
Famous quotes containing the words knights of, knights and/or apocalypse:
“Here we have bishops, priests, and deacons, a Censorship Board, vigilant librarians, confraternities and sodalities, Duce Maria, Legions of Mary, Knights of this Christian order and Knights of that one, all surrounding the sinner’s free will in an embattled circle.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“Here we have bishops, priests, and deacons, a Censorship Board, vigilant librarians, confraternities and sodalities, Duce Maria, Legions of Mary, Knights of this Christian order and Knights of that one, all surrounding the sinner’s free will in an embattled circle.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“That even an apocalypse can be made to seem part of the ordinary horizon of expectation constitutes an unparalleled violence that is being done to our sense of reality, to our humanity.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)