Magdalena of Austria

Archduchess Magdalena of Austria. Painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldi around 1563

Magdalena of Austria as abbess

Archduchess Magdalena of Austria (born August 14, 1532 in Innsbruck , † September 10, 1590 in Hall in Tirol ) was a member of the House of Habsburg ; as well as founder and first princess of the women's monastery in Hall in Tirol .

Life

Magdalena was the fourth daughter of fifteen children of the Roman-German king and later Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564), and his wife Princess Anna Jagiello (1503–1547), daughter of King Wladyslaw II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third Mrs. Anne de Foix-Candale . Her paternal grandparents were King Philip I and the Infanta Joanna of Castile, known as the Mad .

While their father was still alive, Archduchess Magdalena and her younger sister Margarethe expressed their wish to remain unmarried and to found a community of pious women that Ferdinand found difficult to accept. In contrast, the emperor considered his second youngest daughter, Helena , to be unsuitable for marriage because of her weak constitution. These three daughters therefore decided to lead a consecrated life and to found a monastery - not a monastery, but a community organized by special statutes. After the death of her father in 1564, Magdalena took the vow of celibate chastity , only wore mourning clothing for her entire life and set about founding the "Royal Monastery" in Hall, which welcomed like-minded women - both noble and middle-class - should make possible a withdrawn, pious and godly life under the supervision of the Jesuits . She headed the monastery for 22 years and gave it a status under the influence of the Doctor of the Church, Petrus Canisius . After a short illness, Magdalena died in the reputation of holiness. Her remains, which had been in the Jesuit church in Hall since 1610, were transferred to the women's collegiate church in 1706.

As Venerable Servant of God , the process of beatification was initiated for her in Rome .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Magdalena . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 1 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ludwig Rapp: Queen Magdalena of Austria, founder of the royal women's monastery in Hall in Tirol. A picture of life from the sixteenth century. Printed and published by A. Wegers Buchhandlung, Brixen 1899.
• Nikolaus Grass: The women's monastery and its art monuments , in: Haller book. Festschrift for the 650th anniversary of the city elevation (Schlern-Schriften 106), Innsbruck (1953)
• Linda Maria Koldau : Women - Music - Culture. A handbook on the German-speaking area of ​​the early modern period , Cologne / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-412-24505-4 , pp. 59–65. Online at Google books
• Brigitta Lauro: The tombs of the Habsburgs. Art monuments of a European dynasty , Vienna (2007)

Web links

Commons : Archduchess Magdalena of Austria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• hallmultimedial.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Margaretha, Archduchess of Austria .  No. 190. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 11 ( digitized version ).
2. ↑ Wurzbach: Helene, Archduchess of Austria .  No. 111. In: Biographisches Lexikon. 6th part. Vienna 1860, p. 277 ( digitized version ).
3. ^ Richard Reifenscheid: The Habsburgs - From Rudolf I to Karl I , Weltbild (1994) ISBN 3-85001-484-3
4. ↑ Robert Rebitsch :  MAGDALENA, Archduchess of Austria. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 876-881.