Apostolic Field Vicariate
The Apostolic Vicariate field was from 1773 to 1918, the top Catholic military spiritual authority in the Austro-Hungarian military chaplaincy of the armed forces of the Habsburg Empire and was under the Apostolic Vicar field .
Already in 1720 Pope Clement XI. the imperial army was placed exclusively under the spiritual jurisdiction of the grand chaplain (capellanus maior castrensis) - as delegated apostolic field vicar. In 1773, Empress Maria Theresa established her own Apostolic Field Vicariate, which was headed by Johann Heinrich von Kerens , Bishop of Wiener Neustadt. After the abolition of the Diocese of Wiener Neustadt , the newly established Diocese of St. Pölten became the official seat of the Apostolic Field Vicars and Keren's first bishop of St. Pölten. In 1826 the seat of the Apostolic Field Vicariate was moved to Vienna and the link to the diocese of St. Pölten was broken.
After the break-up of Austria-Hungary , Field Consistorial Secretary Ferdinand Stanislaus Pawlikowski was entrusted with the liquidation of the Apostolic Field Vicariate. The Catholic military chaplaincy in the armed forces of the 1st Republic was initially organized as an army provost and from 1921 in the form of the military vicariate under the direction of Pawlikowski.
literature
- Gröger, Roman Hans; Ham, Claudia; Sammer, Alfred: Military pastoral care in Austria: between heaven and earth; Graz, Vienna 2001
- Bielik, Emerich : History of the KuK military pastoral care and the Apostolic Field Vicariate: on the order of His Episcopal Grace of the Most Revered Mr. Apostolic Field Vicar Dr. Coloman Belopotoczky; Vienna 1901