Gregorius Thomas Ziegler

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Gregorius Thomas Ziegler, bishop of Linz, (1770-1852) was born at Kirchheim near Augsburg on March 7, 1770. He joined the Benedictines at Wiblingen in 1788, was ordained priest, 25 May 1793, teaching in various Benedicting institutions until 23 October 1892, when he became prior of his monastery.

After the suppression of Wiblingen in 1806 he removed with some of his confreres to Tiniec in Poland and taught theology at the neighbouring University of Cracow. When the Benedictines werer forced to leave Tiniec in 1809 he was engaged as professor of church history at the Lyceum of Linz, 1809-15, and of theology at Vienna, 1815-22. On 2 February 1822, he became Bishop of the new diocese of Tiniec, but transferrred his see to Tarnow, where he began the erection of a seminary and renovated the cathedral. On April 13, 1827, he was promoted to the diocese of Linz.

He laboured successfully for the emancipation of the Church from governmental encroachments, fostered the religious life of the clergy and laity by introducing clerical retreats and popular missions, and advanced the religious education of the laity by introducing religious orders. he is the author of Die Feier der heil. Firmung in der Kath. Kirche (Vienna, 1817); Das Kath. Glaubensprincip (Vienna, 1823); Zuge und Schilderungern aus dem Leben des sel. Seb. Franz Job (Linz, 1835) and various minor works, pastoral letters, occasional lectures, and sermons. He also re-edited Klypfel's institutiones theologiae dogmaticae (Vienna, 1819-21) and contributed various theological treatises to Jakob Frint's Theologische Zeitschrift (Vienna, 1813-16).

He died at Linz on April 15, 1852.