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And if you'd like to hear it sung in German (with the verse for Archduke Otto) see this site:

http://www.twschwarzer.de/kaiserld.mp3


And for Italian, try this one:

http://www.kuk-ir97.com/inno.mp3

Bless, Father Matthew!

I distributed Bl. Karl prayer-cards at our pilgrimage on Sunday, through the kindness of our member, Jose.

Last night, one of the Sisters in attendance contacted me and asked me to translate the prayer on the back into Ukrainian.

Her father loved Bl. Karl and she would like to further spread the word about him via the Ukrainian language.

I'll get right on it!

Alex

Dear Father Matthew,
Is that you singing the German Version? You should leave modesty aside and let me congratulate you for the beautiful voice that you have. You need to brush up a little on you German pronunciation though.
Lauro

No, no, that is not I at all. I have no idea who it is but it sounds as though it was from a record. Would that I could sing so well!

Fr. Matthew

Bless, Fr. Matthew,

Could you share any information about the process of Bl. Karl's wife, the Empress Zita?

Alex

Alex,

I haven't heard anything about that though I did see her and Karl's picture on the cover of an English translation of a book by a German theologian on saintly men and women in modern times, including married couples. Karl and Zita were both profiled in that book. I don't remember the name of it but I did see it on a bookstore shelf in January.

Fr. Matthew

Alex,

Here's the title of the book:
Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries
by Ferdinand Holbock, Michael J. Miller
You can find the book at Amazon.com

Fr. Matthew

In some desultory reading of Joseph Roth, Austrian novelist and Jewish convert to Catholicism and monarchism, I found that he said that it was the non-German subjects of the Habsburgs who were the more loyal to them than the Germans, who hankered after unification with Germany. The protagonist of his novel, "The Radetzky March" [which he says is the anthem of conservatism] is a Slovenian member of the minor nobility.

BTW, on my trip to Vienna last November, I saw, I believe, the famous icon of Mariapoch in St. Stephen's Cathedral, where it was the focus of great veneration. I also visited the Capuchin Crypt, where the Habsburgs are interred, and my memory is that Empress Zita's sarcophagus is in the same room (the "new chapel") with Kaiser Franz Joseph, and, yes, only a small monument to Kaiser Karl, whose incorrupt body remains in Madeira (too great a pilgrimage/tourist attraction there, I hear, for them to let him go).

All the best,
Woody

Dear Woody:

I don't think that it has anything to do with the site of the Blessed Karl's tomb being a tourist attraction.

You hardly hear it mentioned at all in any secular situation.

The people themselves have developed a local cultus to the Blessed Karl and indeed proclaimed him a saint the moment he died.

If you read the directives regarding the saints, you will note that local veneration is the primary indicator of sainthood for any servant of God.

The Habsburg family understands this fully, and are more than willing to leave their father resting in the Cathedral of Nossa Senhora do Monte, in Madeira.

I myself feel sad that the relics will not be enshrined in his homeland.

But given the animosity, if not open hostility, of many modern Austrians to the memory of the Hapsburgs, then I would rather have him in a place where he is loved.

Nothing is perfect in this world.


Sincerely
defreitas

Today, 20 November 2004, is the 92nd birthday of Archduke Otto, Blessed Karl's eldest son. He attended the beatification ceremonies in Rome and also the feastday celebrations on 21 October 2004 at Funchal, Madeira, where his blessed father is laid to rest.

Fr. Matthew

Many Years!

Ad Multos Annos!

May the Habsburgs return to their ancestral throne(s) one happy day!

Alex