Religion: anti-racism activists 
Name: Knights of Saint Virgil
Classification:
villains
group
Publisher(s): 
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents (vol. 1) #27 (Early Sep. 1989): "Just Another Shade of Hate"
Creators: Scott Lobdell, Ron Wilson, Jeff Albrecht
Number of Appearances: 1
Enemy of: American Eagle
Worked for: Peace Monger
The Knights of Saint Virgil attacked anti-racism activist Dr. Cobleskill at a dinner in Washington, D.C. They were defeated by Native American super-hero American Eagle. The group was ostensibly a racist group that wanted to kill Cobleskill, but American Eagle soon learned the truth behind them: The group was entirely organized and led by Dr. Cobleskill himself.
Dr. Cobleskill used his mutant power to transform hatred in other people into raw physical strength and size to transform into the fanatically anti-racism super-villain Peace Monger. American Eagle defeated Peace Monger, both in physical combat as well as in an intellectual argument about his flawed methods. Although the true beliefs of the Knights of Saint Virgil are never fully elucidated, it seems certain that they only pretended to be racists and that they actually shared the fanatical anti-racist ideology of their leader and organizer, Dr. Cobleskill. In this wise, the "Knights of Saint Virgil" should not actually be identified as the "sect" or religious affiliation of its members. This was only a front, a charade adopted to further their radical anti-racist beliefs in a dramatic, violent and deceptive way.
The Dr. Cobleskill character was apparently based on controversial "civil rights activist" Al Sharpton, who denounced racism while using racial controversies to enhance his own prestige and bank account. This story, in which the Knights of Saint Virgil are hired by Peace Monger himself to attack him, appeared just two years after the famous Tawana Brawley event, in which Al Sharpton stoked the fans of racial hatred after a 15-year-old black girl fabricated a story about being brutally attacked by six white men. One difference between this real news event and the comic book story that was published soon thereafter is that the Knights of Saint Virgil were real people organized to portray a racially-motivated attack, while the six white men in Brawley's story never existed at all.
Marvel Comics Presents (vol. 1) #27 (Early Sep. 1989): "Just Another Shade of Hate"
Suggested links for further research about this character and the character's religious affiliation:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Monger
- http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/peacem.htm
- http://www.comicboards.com/marvelguide/k.htm
- http://www.marvunapp.com/master/kjkn.htm
- http://www.marvunapp.com/master/pbpep.htm
- https://www.comics.org/issue/46730/
- http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=12744