Jean-Chretien and his Chasseurs

Jean-Chretien de Fischer entered the French army in 1737.  In 1741, he became a valet to a French officer during the Sieges of Prague.  Fischer took care of his master's horse, taking it outside the city and across the river to graze.  Many other servants and horses followed Fischer.  But one day, wild Hungarian hussars swept down on them all, to carry away the horses.  Fischer and his fellow-servants beat them off.  General Saxe heard of this and put all the servants under Fischer's command, creating an Independent Company for him.  These Chasseurs de Fischer served in Alsace, at Lauffeldt and Bergen-op-Zoom.  After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, Fischer was the only light corps commander to have his corps not disbanded.  In the Seven Years' War, Fischer's Chasseurs would go on to further glory in Hanover, Sandershausen, Krefeld, Bergen, Minden, Kloster Kamp, Lutterberg and Warburg.

Jean-Chretien de Fischer was an organizer of men.  In addition to raising the Chasseurs de Fischer, he raised a unit of light troops sent to India, and the Volontaires-Etrangers.  He died in 1762.  His story is an excellent example of Matthew 25:21:

"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Celtic Christianity

"Although the 'Breastplate of St Patrick' has been popular as a hymn ever since its translation into English in the nineteenth century, the earliest version known belongs to a time three centuries after Patrick's death.  What we can find in it--or in the hymn 'Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart'--is the atmosphere of this obscure period.  Here was a faith deeply personal but also securely orthodox, accepting battle against the magic of paganism, creating a Celtic Christianity full of confidence in its Lord and in itself."--from pp. 32-33, Christian England: Its Story to the Reformation by David L. Edwards