Franz Joseph Rudigier

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Franz Joseph Rudigier, lithograph
Bishop Rudigier with a plan of the new Linz Cathedral, stained glass window by Josef Kepplinger in the parish church of Gramastetten (1883)
Birthplace in Partenen
Cenotaph of Bishop Rudigiers in the Maria-Koncept-Dom in Linz

Franz Joseph Rudigier (born April 7, 1811 in Partenen , Vorarlberg , † November 29, 1884 in Linz ) was an Austrian clergyman, Roman Catholic bishop of the Linz diocese and a member of the state parliament in Upper Austria.

Life

Franz Joseph Rudigier was the youngest child of Johann Christian Rudigier and Maria Josepha, née Tschofen. In 1831 he entered the seminary in Brixen and was ordained a priest on April 12, 1835 . He was first a pastor in Vandans and in 1836 in Bürs . In 1838 he studied at the higher educational institute for secular priests St. Augustin ( Frintaneum ) in Vienna and in 1839 became professor of church history and canon law in Brixen. In 1845 he became spiritual director of the Frintaneum and court chaplain in Vienna. He was the teacher of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his brother Maximilian . From 1848 he was provost of Innichen and from 1850 canon of Brixen and Regens of the local seminary.

On December 19, 1852, Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him Bishop of Linz, Pope Pius IX. confirmed him on March 10, 1853. He was ordained bishop on June 5 in Vienna by Cardinal Michele Viale-Prelà and enthroned in Linz on June 12.

In 1854, Bishop Rudigier established a church teachers' college and promoted the establishment of numerous religious orders . After the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception , he initiated the construction of the Mariä-Konzept-Domes ("New Cathedral") in Linz in 1855 , which was dedicated to this patronage . The foundation stone was laid in 1862, and completion took until 1924. The large cathedral organ, built by the Danish organ building company Marcussen & Søn , is also called the Rudigier organ in honor of the bishop .

Bishop Rudigier was a member of the Upper Austrian Landtag, which was constituted in 1861, and a co-founder of political Catholicism. As a fierce opponent of liberalism , he was seldom willing to compromise.

In a pastoral letter dated September 7, 1868, he called for resistance to new state school and marriage laws (see May Laws (Austria-Hungary) ). The letter was confiscated and Rudigier was sentenced to two weeks in prison on July 12, 1869 for "the crime of disturbing public peace", but was pardoned by the Emperor. This condemnation made him people's bishop and led to increasing political activity among Catholics. In 1870 the Catholic People's Association and the Catholic Press Association were founded. The latter took over the publication of the Catholic daily Linzer Volksblatt .

He did not consider the dogma of the Pope's infallibility to be opportune, but in 1870 he agreed to this dogma at the First Vatican Council . In the same year, the concordat of 1855 was repealed by the liberal kk government authorized by Franz Joseph I. He never accepted.

Franz Joseph Rudigier died in 1884 and was initially buried in the Old Cathedral in Linz. After the completion of the New Cathedral , his remains (like those of the other Bishops of Linz buried in the Old Cathedral) were moved to the new Cathedral in 1924.

Appreciation

In 1895 the process of beatification was initiated; on April 3, 2009 was him by Pope Benedict XVI. awarded the heroic degree of virtue and elevated Rudigier to the venerable servant of God . The street leading to the New Cathedral in Linz is named after him.

Works

  • Franz Doppelbauer (Ed.): Bishop Rudigier's spiritual speeches. 2 volumes. Doppelbauer, Linz 1885–1887.
  • Franz Doppelbauer (ed.): Bishop Rudigier's pastoral letter. Doppelbauer, Linz 1888.
  • Franz Doppelbauer (Ed.): Bishop Rudigier's political speeches. Doppelbauer, Linz 1889.

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz Joseph Rudigier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. It was one of several processes of the time in which church and state were embroiled and in which the church was no longer considered inviolable. See the 1872 confessional affair
  2. Rudigierstrasse. In: stadtgeschichte.linz.at. Retrieved April 5, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Gregor Thomas Ziegler Bishop of Linz
1853–1884
Ernest Maria Müller