József Kopácsy

József Kopácsy, lithograph by Franz Eybl , 1841

signature

Archbishop's coat of arms József Kopácsy

József Kopácsy (born May 30, 1775 in Veszprém , Hungary ; † September 18, 1847 in Esztergom , Hungary) was Metropolitan and Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary from 1838 to 1847 .

Life

József Kopácsy comes from an impoverished Hungarian aristocratic family and went to school in Veszprém, where he was already supported by the local pastor and was finally able to study theology at the “Emericanum” in Bratislava . Since 1799 he worked as a teacher of Canon Law and was in 1805 a judge of the Canon Law , after all, he was in 1809 director of the seminary in Veszprém . With the death of Karl Ambrosius von Österreich-Este he entered the cathedral chapter of Esztergom and was appointed prelate in 1817 . In 1827 he was ordained bishop of Veszprém and looked after a total of 34 parishes. He was appointed to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1833 and represented a Hungarian national orientation. As the diocesan bishop of Veszprém, József Kopácsy ordered the Hungarian-language register management and in 1834 founded a teacher training institute.

Sedis vacancy

In the first half of the 19th century, the Austro-Hungarian Church was shaped by Josefinism . Since the chair of the Archbishop of Esztergom, and thus that of the Primate of Hungary, was assigned by the Austrian Emperor , it happened that some episcopal seats remained vacant due to political and tactical reasons, but also for reasons of financial savings. In part, the Holy See had to demand the revocation of the Jansenist and statist decisions of the diocesan synod, which the Bishop of Transylvania , Ignác Szepesy , had called in 1822. However, this bishop presupposed "that the Majesty would allow this". With this imperial loyalty, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria wanted to appoint him Archbishop of Esztergom and thus Primate of Hungary in 1838 - after a seven-year vacancy . Bishop Szepesys died, however, and the next candidate was Bishop József Kopácsy von Wesprim , who was also included in the branch loyal to the emperor. At first Kopácsy refused, but accepted the appeal after a half-year reflection period. A smear campaign began against the new primate and he was accused of Jansenism.

Primate of Hungary

Esztergom Basilica

Chain Bridge in the blue hour

His predecessor, Alexander Cardinal Rudnay died on September 13, 1831 and only on December 15, 1838 was Bishop Kopácsy appointed Archbishop of Gran and thus appointed as the successor as Primate of Hungary, at the same time he remained Bishop of Veszprém. As archbishop he campaigned for the further construction of the Esztergom basilica , supported the construction of the famous Chain Bridge in Budapest and was the editor of an English-language diocesan circular.

Honors

In honor of his activities, a street was named after him after the primate's death in Esztergom. The Archbishop had opened the "Esztergom Archbishop's Teacher Training Institute" on November 3rd, 1842, it was the predecessor of the current Roman Catholic Pedagogical University of Esztergom.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Kopácsy, Joseph . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 12th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1864, pp. 419–421 ( digitized version ).
• Benda:  Kopácsy József. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1969, p. 112.

Web links

• Entry about József Kopácsy in Giga-catholic information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of Benedictine monasticism in Hungary [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ [2]
3. ↑ Vitéz János Roman Catholic University of Education, Esztergom Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexander Rudnay	Archbishop of Gran 1838–1847	Ján Scitovský