DE COURTEN, VITTORIO. – Papal officer, brother of General Count Raffaele de Courten, born in Sion (Valais) in 1810, died there on 25 November 1887.
He entered the service of the Holy See in the foreign infantry in 1832, and, with the rank of lieutenant, distinguished himself greatly during the campaign of 1848, especially on 10 June at Vicenza. Promoted to major on 21 June 1855 and to lieutenant colonel in the 2nd Foreign Regiment on 7 August 1860, he took part in the defense of Perugia, obtaining honorable terms from the royal troops for the surrender of that garrison. Placed on inactive service in 1861, in 1867 he wished to enlist as a simple soldier in the foreign carabiniers battalion, fighting in several places and taking over, with skill and valor, command of the battalion itself on the field at Mentana (3 November), after Major Castella had been wounded.