Lev Skrbenský z Hříště

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Tombstone of Lev Skrbenský z Hříště in Saint Wenceslas cathedral in Olomouc (Czech Republic).

Lev Cardinal Skrbenský z Hříště (ger. Lev Kardinal Skrbenský von Hříště, also spelt Skrebensky; born June 12, 1863, Hausdorf, Moravia, Austria-Hungary; died December 24, 1938, Olomouc, Czechoslovakia) was a prominent prelate in the Catholic Church during the early twentieth century.

Of uncertain but undoubtedly wealthy background (it is sometimes believed he was an illegitimate child of the Habsburg Monarchy, Lev Skrbensky z Hriste was educated at the prestigious seminary of Olomouc and during the 1880s worked on a doctrate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. After being ordained in 1889, he went into the Austro-Hungarian Army and spent the following decade serving as an army chaplain.

His reputation as an army chaplain, along quite likely with diplomatic considerations by the Vatican, was such that Pope Leo XIII appointed him as Archbishop of Prague in 1899 upon leaving his military duties. Two years later he was made a cardinal at the tender age of thirty-seven. Since then no man has been elevated to the cardinalate at such a young age. The youngest in the past hundred years have been two Patriarchs of Lisbon: Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira elevated in 1929 at the age of 41 and António Ribeiro elevated in 1973 at the age of 44.

Styles of Lev Cardinal Skrbenský z Hříště


Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Olomouc

He participated in the 1903 and 1914 conclaves, and was transferred to the prestigious see of Olomouc in 1916, which, like his youthful elevation to the episcopate and cardinalate, led to further speculation of deals between the Vatican and the Habsburg Empire. Although he began to have extremely chronic health problems soon after this, some historians have said his failure to participate in the 1922 conclave was due to the Vatican wanting to distance itself from the collapsed empire when it was actually due to his poor health - which caused him to stop undertaking the duties of Archbishop.

Despite the fact that his health remained very poor, Skrbensky z Hriste almost lived long enough to see the 1939 conclave. He was the last living cardinal elevated by Pope Leo XIII, and as with the corresponding cardinal of Pius IX, Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, he managed to outlive his nearest rival for this honour, Vincenzo Vannutelli, by a very long period (over eight years).