PYRKER von HOHENWART, JOHANN BAPT. LADISLAV. - Cistercian monk, b. at Nagy-Lángh (Hungary) on 2 Nov. 1772, d. at Vienna on 2 Dec. 1847; successively parish priest of Türnitz, bishop of Zips, patriarch of Venice and primate of Dalmatia from 1820 to 1827, and finally archbishop of Erlau.
Besides his extraordinary charitable activity as founder of hospitals, schools, etc., he deserves to be remembered as the author of two heroic poems of patriotic content. The first, Tunisias, celebrates the expedition of Carlo V to Tunis for the liberation of 20,000 Christian slaves; the second, Rudolf von Habsburg, extols the heroic virtues of the great Emperor and particularly his struggle against Ottocaro of Bohemia. These works, in which traits of vigorous and elegant craftsmanship may also be discerned, nevertheless betray, on the whole, imitation of earlier works, especially Klopstock’s Messia.