The Advocates of Saint Peter (Italian: Avvocati di San Pietro, French: Avocats de Saint-Pierre) were a body of jurists, whose stated main object was the defense of the Holy See in its rights and privileges, both in the spiritual and temporal order.
It bound its members to refute false statements of enemies of the Church, whether derived from distortions of history, jurisprudence, or dogma, but above all were they to devote their legal knowledge to a defense of the Church's rights before civil tribunals.
The society was formed in 1877, on the occasion of the Golden Episcopal Jubilee of Pope Pius IX, and the Advocate Count Cajetan Agnelli dei Malherbi, of Rome, became its first president.
Pope Pius IX warmly approved of the undertaking and desired a wide extension of the society.
Colleges of the Advocates of Saint Peter, numbering many hundred members, existed in Italy, England, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Canada and South America.