Friedrich Johannes Jacob Celestin von Schwarzenberg

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Portrait at St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague.
Portrait at St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague.

Cardinal Friedrich Johannes Jacob Celestin von Schwarzenberg (sometimes Friedrich Johannes Joseph Schwarzenberg or Friedrich, Prince of Schwarzenberg; born April 6, 1809, Vienna, Austria; died March 27, 1885, Vienna, Austria) was a Catholic churchman of the nineteenth century in Austria and the present-day Czech Republic (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

He was of royal birth: his father was an Austrian prince - but when Napoleon's armies threatened Austria the young churchman-to-be moved to Bohemia with his mother and one of her daughters. After both his mother and daughter were killed in a celebration in Paris by Napoleon's forces, he was placed under the care of Father Lorenz Greif and soon devoted himself to studying for the priesthood. Friedrich began his theological studies at Salzburg but completed his last year of theology in Vienna, where he was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 24. Friedrich was thought so highly of, that a papal dispensation was requested to elevate him to Archbishop of Salzburg in 1835 even though he was not, according to canon law, old enough.

As Archbishop of Vienna, his main priority over the following decade was the elimination of Protestants from his diocese. Whilst he accepted the imperial resolution of 1837 demanding their emigration, it turned out that Friedrich was deeply ambivalent because he knew that demanding Protestants leave in this way would adversely affect the lives of their families, especially their children. He was also a major patron of the arts and of charities during these years, establishing a major college for the study of music.

He was named a cardinal at the age of thirty-three in 1842 and after the Protestant issue had settled turned his focus to improving diocesan government through more regular meetings of bishops, as had been decreed by the Council of Trent. This did not prove a great success and Schwarzenberg was transeferred to Prague by Pope Pius IX in 1850. During his long period in Prague Schwarzenberg's chief focus was on the relationship between Church and State in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the success he achieved in this role, was, as in Vienna, only moderate.

He did not participate in the conclave of 1846 because it was difficult owing to the prevailing political situation for him to travel to Rome, but participated in the conclave of 1878, when he was one of four men still alive who were already cardinals when Pius IX was elected for the longest papal reign in history. The others were Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Fabio Maria Asquini and Domenico Carafa della Spina di Traetto.

When Schwarzenberg died in 1885 after a long period of poor health, he was the last surviving cardinal elevated by Gregory XVI.

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Preceded by
Alois Josef svobodný pán Schrenk		 Archbishop of Prague
1849–1885		 Succeeded by
Franziskus von Paula Graf von Schönborn