Soldier on turbulent priests (7)
I believe the answer is:
persist
'soldier' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'turbulent priests' is the wordplay.
'turbulent' indicates an anagram.
'priests' with letters rearranged gives 'PERSIST'.
'on' is the link.
(Other definitions for persist that I've seen before include "Persevere, hang on" , "Continue to exist" , "Continue despite opposition" , "Continue in spite of difficulty" , "Continue firmly or obstinately" .)