INNSBRUCK. — Apostolic administration, established on 11 December 1921 for the territories of the diocese of Brixen that remained under Austrian sovereignty after 1918. According to the Austrian Concordat of 1934, it should have been transformed into a diocese, but political difficulties have thus far prevented its implementation. It has annexed the general vicariate of Feldkirch, which comprises the federal state of Vorarlberg. Its origin lies in the fact that Vorarlberg was formerly subject to three different dioceses (Augsburg, Chur, Constance), so that Francis I obtained from Rome in 1818 the ecclesiastical unification of Vorarlberg as a separate diocese; however, in 1819, instead of a diocese, a general vicariate was established with a titular bishop at its head, dependent on Brixen. In 1921, it was aggregated to the new apostolic administration of Innsbruck.
The apostolic administration of Innsbruck comprises northern and eastern Tyrol (9,662 sq. km.) and Vorarlberg (2,602 sq. km.), with a total population of 520,000, of whom 481,146 are Catholics. It has 394 parishes, 605 diocesan priests and 395 regular clergy, a minor and major seminary, 38 male and 30 female religious communities (Annuario pontificio, 1951, p. 641).
Noteworthy in Innsbruck itself is the Hofkirche, built in 1553–63 in Gothic-Renaissance style, with the grand cenotaph of Maximilian I, a work of art sui generis, featuring 24 alabaster reliefs depicting scenes from Maximilian’s life and 28 colossal bronze statues of his legendary and historical ancestors, designed and cast by the finest artists of the period; the Jesuit church (1627–40), a typical model of the “Jesuitenstil” with a dome; the present episcopal church, the Stadtpfarrkirche, a grand late Baroque structure; in Hall, the enormous Gothic parish church, built in various periods; that of Schwaz, Gothic, with four naves, two of which were originally intended for citizens and two for miners, each with its own choir. Among the shrines to note are: Absam near Hall, the principal Marian centre of Tyrol; Eben, a Gothic structure with a Baroque marble altar (1740) of St Notburga, a popular saint; Judenstein near Rinn, where St Andrew of Rinn, a three-year-old child allegedly killed by Jews on 12 July 1462, is venerated; his cult was approved by Benedict XIV on 25 December 1752. In eastern Tyrol near Lienz, the ruins of Aguntum, an ancient episcopal see until the 6th century, and the excavations at Kirchbichl near Lavant, where seven churches have been found, one above the other or nearby, dating from the 5th century to the present Gothic church, which perpetuates an ancient Celtic sanctuary. The best-known shrine in Vorarlberg is Rankweil, already frequented in 1550.
The University. — St Peter Canisius obtained from Ferdinand I the foundation of a Jesuit institute (1562), which, rapidly developing, was elevated in 1677, by papal and imperial diplomas, to the status of a university, of which at least eight chairs were permanently entrusted to the Society of Jesus. After the suppression of 1773, the university declined and was reduced to a lyceum. In 1826 Francis I re-established it, but without the Faculty of Theology. In 1832 the Jesuits returned to Innsbruck, and in 1856 the Faculty of Theology was re-established, entirely entrusted to the Society of Jesus. The Faculty, which soon gained international renown, was suppressed during the Nazi period. Among its principal professors were the Jesuits H. Hurter, H. Grisar, N. Nilles, E. Michael, L. Fonck, H. Noldin, and among lay scholars Baron L. von Pastor. The Jesuits have published since 1877 the Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie.
CANISIANUM INSTITUTE. — The theological college of Innsbruck, as a continuation of the ancient student convitto Nikolaihaus, founded in 1569 and closed in 1783, was reopened for theology students in 1858 in the Sillgasse and soon flourished. Insufficient space led to the construction of a new building, the Canisianum in Tschurtschenthalerstrasse, which was occupied on 1 October 1911 by 276 students. After the closure of the college following the laws of November 1938, it moved with a reduced number of students to Sion (Valais, Switzerland), where it remained until September 1945. After its return, it resumed its development in the same location where it had previously flourished.
In the Canisianum scholars of theology from all the dioceses of the world may find a place, provided they observe the conditions laid down in the statutes and space permits. The students receive in the boarding school a solid and universally oriented religious instruction. They attend, outside the College, the philosophy and theology lectures at the Theological Faculty of the University of I., which, like the College itself, is governed by the Fathers and professors of the Society of Jesus. The rich libraries of the University and of the College of the Society of Jesus are at the disposal of the scholars. Physical hygiene is also well cared for through games, sports, mountain excursions and recreations. Many thousands of priests, several cardinals (among them Cardinal Count Preysing of Berlin, Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Cardinal Count Galen of Münster, and others), seventy bishops, many abbots general of Orders, canons, scattered throughout the world, have had here, in whole or in part, their training. — See pl. VII.
GIUSEPPE WAMSER