Franz-Josef Rudigier

Franz-Josef Rudigier.

Franz-Josef Rudigier (17 April 1811, Gaschurn – 29 November 1884) was the bishop of Linz in Austria from 1853 to 1884.

He was the fifth bishop of the diocese, and much of local Church's growth is due to his vigorous and unwearied labors. His deep religious faith and his pre-eminently Catholic principles, as well as his unyielding will, made him for many years the intellectual leader of the Austrian Catholics in their struggle with liberalism. Austrian liberalism, antagonistic to the Church, controlled for decades the destinies of the country.

The bishop was the zealous friend and promoter of every expression of religious life: Christian schools, religious associations, the building of churches, the Catholic press, the founding of houses of the religious orders and congregations, which greatly increased during his episcopate.

Ever memorable is the manly stand he took on behalf of the concordat of 1855. This Concordat was bitterly antagonized and much calumniated by the Liberals, and was annulled by the government in 1868 and 1870 without consultation with the Holy See.

He left a lasting memorial in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Linz, for which he prepared the way by founding in 1855 an association for building the cathedral.

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