Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl

Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, 1722

Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, around 1740

Coat of arms of Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, 1730

Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl , full name Kaspar Ignaz Graf von Künigl zu Ehrenburg , (born March 17, 1671 in Innsbruck , † July 24, 1747 , at Ehrenburg Castle near Kiens , South Tyrol ) was a prince-bishop of the diocese of Brixen .

Life

Origin and early work

Bishop Künigl was the son of the Tyrolean governor Johann Sebastian Georg von Künigl (1628–1697) and his wife Maria Anna geb. Vizthum of Eckstädt . The von Künigl family belonged to the Tyrolean nobility; at the time of the prince-bishop's birth they were barons, but from 1713 counts.

Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl attended the Jesuit grammar school in Innsbruck; there he also studied philosophy and theology from 1687 to 1691. On December 22, 1692, he received by Bishop Johann Franz Khuen of Belasi the priesthood and served first as provost from San Candido in Pusteria . At the age of 31, the priest was elected Prince-Bishop of Brixen on June 8, 1702; the episcopal ordination received his Georg Sigismund of Sinnersberg , Auxiliary Bishop in Trento, on June 24 1703rd

Prince-Bishop of Brixen

Künigl ruled the prince-bishopric of Brixen from 1702 to 1747 and thus had the longest known term of office of all local bishops. In addition to diplomatic skills, which u. a. became clear in numerous negotiations with the Viennese imperial court, the pastor made sustained efforts to implement the reform decisions of the Council of Trent . Accordingly, the bishop should visit his diocese every two years. Soon after taking up the shepherd's office, Künigl began his first extensive visitation, which lasted from 1704 to 1711. A second visit followed from 1711 to 1715. Spending hours in the confessional and personally handing out Holy Communion to the faithful were a matter of course for the prelate, he became the model of consistent and personally self-sacrificing episcopal pastoral care. During his work, Künigl promoted regular priestly retreats , as well as a permanent and extensive people's missionary movement , which was based in particular on the Jesuits and their long-time Superior Father Christoph Müller (1682–1766). He also created 55 new pastoral care offices, numerous new schools, ordered the establishment of smaller deanery libraries and had the ritual book Sacerdotale Brixinense published in 1721 , which he made available free of charge to every diocesan priest in order to train him in the liturgical field.

Numerous churches and parsonages were built under Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl's episcopate, the renovation of the cathedral in Bressanone (from 1745) and the completion of the Hofburg , especially the west wing with the imperial wing and the court church stand out here. He donated the baroque high altar for Innsbruck Cathedral . In 1704, Prince-Bishop von Künigl had acquired an arm bone from St. Kassian from Imola . In memory of the transfer of this relic to Brixen and in gratitude for being spared from devastation and calamity by enemy armies in the war of 1703, a procession in honor of St. Kassian praised, which takes place to this day. Bishop Künigl's brother, Sebastian Johann Georg Graf von Künigl (1663–1739), acted - like his father - as governor of Tyrol and was the soul of the resistance against the French and Bavaria in the war of 1703 . To commemorate the successful defense against enemy troops, the state of Tyrol erected the Anna column in Innsbruck , which the Brixen shepherd solemnly consecrated on July 26, 1706.

Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl died in 1747 at his ancestral home in Ehrenburg Castle near Chienes and was buried in Bressanone Cathedral, where his epitaph has been preserved.

literature

Theodor Mairhofer: Pusterthal's old noble families. 1863; Scan of the section about Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl
Constantin von Wurzbach : Künigl, Kaspar Ignaz Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 13th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1865, p. 329 ( digitized version ).
Hans Weiser: The renewal of the diocese of Brixen by Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz Graf von Künigl 1702–1747. Dissertation, Innsbruck, 1936.
Wolfgang Winhard: Künigl, Kaspar Ignaz Graf von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Col. 768-770. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
The high cathedral is her tombstone. Article of August 21, 2008 in the newspaper Dolomiten , p. 9.

Web links

Commons : Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry on Kaspas Ignaz von Künigl zu Ehrenburg on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved July 3, 2017.

Individual evidence

^ To Ehrenburg Castle in South Tyrol
↑ On the mother's full name
^ Entry on Georg von Sinnersberg on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved July 3, 2017.
↑ On the imperial wing of the Hofburg Brixen ( Memento from June 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
↑ To the high altar of Innsbruck Cathedral
^ ^A ^b Josef Gelmi: Church history of Tyrol . Tyrolia, 1986, ISBN 3-7022-1599-9 , pp. 109 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Franz Khuen von Belasi	Bishop of Brixen 1702–1747	Leopold von Spaur

personal data
SURNAME	Künigl, Kaspar Ignaz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Künigl zu Ehrenburg, Kaspar Ignaz Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Bishop of Brixen
DATE OF BIRTH	March 7, 1671
PLACE OF BIRTH	innsbruck
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 1747
Place of death	Ehrenburg Castle

[1] To Ehrenburg Castle in South Tyrol

[2] On the mother's full name

[3] Entry on Georg von Sinnersberg on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved July 3, 2017.

[4] On the imperial wing of the Hofburg Brixen ( Memento from June 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

[5] To the high altar of Innsbruck Cathedral

[Gelmi-6] A ^b Josef Gelmi: Church history of Tyrol . Tyrolia, 1986, ISBN 3-7022-1599-9 , pp. 109 .