At the age of four, Jean-Marie Charles-Roux wrote a note to Father Christmas, “Please send me toy soldiers to defend the Pope”. The wooden figures in the uniform of the Swiss Guard were still on his shelves at his death ninety five years later. Given this early mission, his later calling as a priest and his familiarity with three Popes was perhaps inevitable, but this did not prevent him from challenging them on issues he felt strongly about. As someone who believed in the Tridentine Rite, the Divine Right of Kings, that Marie-Antoinette should be declared a Martyr, and that the civilised world had vanished in 1789, Fr Charles-Roux was increasingly at odds with the modern twentieth century Church. Yet his fundamental faith, his abiding charm and courtesy, and his conformity with many respects of doctrine (even his liberality on others) helped him escape dismissal as an eccentric relic and allowed him to become a widely admired yet singular member of the Catholic Church.