Antonín Eltschkner

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Coat of arms Antonin Eltschkner, auxiliary bishop in Prague 1933–1961

Antonin Eltschkner (born January 4, 1880 in Polička , Bohemia , † February 22, 1961 in Brno ) was Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Antonin Eltschkner attended elementary school in his hometown and then the high school in Litomyšl ( German : Leitomischl ). After graduating from high school, he went to Rome to study . First in October 1890 to the Bohemian College ( Collegium Bohemicum ), from there to philosophy and theology studies at the Pontifical Urban University and at the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas . He received his doctorate and was ordained a priest in Rome on March 18, 1905 . Back at home he was incardinated in the clergy of Königgrätz . As a chaplain and religion teacher in Königgrätz he became a professor in Prague in 1926 and taught religion and German there. From 1922 to 1925 he was president of the League of Catholic Esperantists in Czechoslovakia . On September 16, 1926, Archbishop František Kordač appointed him to the Prague Metropolitan Chapter . In 1927 he became the first director of the "Catholic Action", whose task it is to financially support the Catholic mission in the world, the Roman Collegium Nepomucenum and the building of churches in the Prague suburbs.

On February 10, 1933 he was appointed by Pope Pius XI. appointed auxiliary bishop in Prague and at the same time titular bishop of Zephyrium . It was consecrated on March 19, 1933 by the Archbishop of Prague Karel Boromejský Kašpar . Co- consecrators were Mořic Pícha , the bishop of Hradec Králové ( German : Königgrätz ) and Johannes Nepomuk Remiger , auxiliary bishop in Prague.

In 1940 Pope Pius XII appointed Antonín Eltschkner as Bishop of Budweis ; the National Socialists tried to prevent this by proposing the German auxiliary bishop of Prague Johannes Nepomuk Remiger . This was rejected by the Holy See on the grounds that the German “ protectorate lords ” had no say in the appointment of bishops; so the bishopric remained vacant . Eltschkner, however, carried out ordinations and confirmations in the diocese of Budweis. After the diocese was re-established in its old borders in 1946, Rome did not appoint Eltschkner as bishop, but instead appointed ThDr. and Professor of Pastoral Theology Josef Hlouch as the ninth bishop of the Budweis diocese.

Equipped with secret powers of the Holy See, Bishop Eltschkner consecrated Kajetán Matoušek , the first secret bishop of the Czech underground church, on September 17, 1949, despite the prohibition of the Czechoslovak communist government .

Since the mid-1950s, Eltschkner lived under the constant supervision of the State Security in Brno and died there seriously ill, almost blind, at the age of eighty. With the approval of the state authorities, his body was transferred to Prague and buried there in the St. Margaretha cemetery of the Břevnov monastery in the Prague district of the same name.

coat of arms

His bishop's coat of arms in violet, divided in two, shows a green five-pointed star with a yellow and white cross, his attachment to the Catholic Esperantists .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ esperanto.cs
  2. ^ Revue des Ordinations Épiscopales, Issue 1933, Number 10
  3. ^ Stanislav Balík, Jiří Hanuš: Katolická církev v Československu 1945-1989 (The Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1989) ; Centrum pro studium, Brno 2007, ISBN 978-80-7325-130-7 (p. 82)
personal data
SURNAME Eltschkner, Antonín
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eltschkner, Antonin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech bishop
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Polička
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1961
Place of death Brno