Olomouc (Olmütz), Archdiocese of

OLOMOUC (OLMÜTZ), ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Archdiocese and city of Moravia (Czechoslovakia). The city was founded in the 11th century and was the capital of Moravia until 1641.

It has an area of 15,591 sq. km., comprises 1,726,538 inhabitants, of whom 1,504,156 are Catholics; it has 701 parishes with 1,856 churches, served by 1,073 secular priests, and has 32 male religious houses with 335 members and 133 female religious houses with 2,303 members (1948).

The diocese of O. was erected in 1063 by Alexander II, raised to an archdiocese by Pius VI in 1777 with the suffragan diocese of Brno.

The bishops of O. had enjoyed special rights and privileges since ancient times: they had their own tribunals (Premysl Otokar II, 1274), enjoyed the title of "princes of the Kingdom of Bohemia" (Charles IV, 1365), and minted coins (Rudolph II, 1599). In 1207 Innocent III conferred on the Chapter of O. the exceptional right of electing the bishop. Among the most distinguished bishops are noted: E. Zdik (1126-50), promoter of ecclesiastical reform; G. Zelezny ("the Iron," 1416-30), first cardinal of the diocese, principal accuser of John Hus at the Council of Constance; William Prusinovsky (1565-72), founder of the University; Cardinal Francis Dietrichstejn (1599-1636), friend of St. Philip Neri and of Cardinal Baronio, who led Moravia back to Catholicism; A. C. Stojan (1921-23), founder of the Apostolate of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius, fervent promoter of the union of Slavic dissidents with the Catholic Church, called by the people, for his beneficence, "Papa Stojan," who died in the odor of sanctity. During the religious wars caused by the movement of John Hus the diocese remained faithful to Catholicism. In 1566 the University directed by the Jesuits was erected there, with all the faculties. In the 19th century this University was suppressed, except for the faculty of theology, later named the "Faculty of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius"; by decree of July 14, 1950 this faculty too was abolished by the communist government.

Among the artistic monuments of the city, worthy of note are the metropolitan church of St. Wenceslas, founded in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 14th and 19th centuries, the Gothic church of St. Maurice of the 15th century, the Archbishop's Palace, the work of the Italian architect Carlo Fontana (1670), and a chapel built on the spot where the Bl. John Srkander, martyr of the seal of the confessional, was martyred in 1620 by the Protestants.

In 1950 all the religious houses were confiscated by the communist government and the religious men and women were deported to concentration convents. The centers of the religious life of the diocese of O. are the places of pilgrimage: Velehrad (Sts. Cyril and Methodius), Svaty Hostyn (in 1948 there were 133,000 communions there), Svaty Kopecek with their monumental churches and their respective houses of spiritual exercises.

Bohumil Hrubý