**RUDIGER, FRANZ JOSEF, Venerable.** – Bishop of Linz (Upper Austria), b. at Parthenen (Vorarlberg) on 6 Apr. 1811, d. at Linz on 19 Nov. 1884.
After ecclesiastical studies at Brixen, he was ordained priest (12 Apr. 1835), entered parochial ministry, but soon was sent for further studies to Vienna; thereafter he became professor in the seminary of Brixen. Recalled to Vienna (1845) as director of the Frintaneum (Institute of Higher Ecclesiastical Studies), he was appointed court chaplain and tutor to the future emperors Francis Joseph (Austria) and Maximilian (Mexico). In 1848 he returned to his diocese, first as provost of St. Candido, and from 1850 as canon of the cathedral of Brixen and rector of the seminary. In 1852 Francis Joseph named R. bishop of Linz (19 Dec.), to which he was consecrated on 5 June 1853.
R. was a zealous, exemplary bishop, a staunch defender of the liberty and rights of the Church and of the rights of his see. According to the constitution, he took part in the various assemblies at Linz and Vienna. Following a pastoral letter on Catholic schools and marriage he was accused, condemned, but pardoned through the Emperor’s direct intervention; he engaged in long struggles over the unjust sequestration of the goods of the episcopal table (1860–71). He was a great preacher, supported the Catholic press, fostered the Catholic social movement, various ecclesiastical associations and the guilds of Catholics, and vigorously defended denominational schools. The diocese was only half a century old, and R. did much to secure its definitive organization; considering the inadequacy of the cathedral (the former Jesuit church), in 1862 he began the grand new cathedral, which he himself saw completed as to the votive chapel and part of the choir, as well as the bell tower (the consecration of the complex took place only in 1924). The introduction of the cause for his beatification occurred on 6 Dec. 1905.
His successor, Abp. Doppelbauer, published his selected sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1901–1905), his spiritual exercises (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908), his pastoral letters (1888), and other volumes of sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908).
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**RUDINI, ANTONIO STARABBA, Marquis of...** Statesman, b. at Palermo on 16 Mar. 1839, d. at Rome on 7 Sept. 1908. Having graduated in law at Palermo, he took part at a very young age in anti-Bourbon conspiracies. After his exile to Genoa (1860), he rapidly advanced in his career through the energy he displayed in repressing the Palermo uprisings: at 25 he became mayor of Palermo, at 27 prefect of the same city, at 29 prefect of Naples, and at 30 minister of the Interior under Menabrea. Elected deputy, he led the Right. In 1891 (after Crispi’s first fall) he became prime minister, and again in 1896, after Adua.
He was a rigid restorer of finances (the “minister of the pruning knife”) and an anti-colonialist (policy of “keeping to one’s own home”); in ecclesiastical policy he followed the tradition of Tanucci as an advocate of state supremacy. Political scandals and social unrest culminating in the events of May 1898, which he failed to confront with energy and discernment (in the violent repressions, nascent Catholic social organizations were lumped together with socialist associations, later provoking the papal encyclical *Spesse volte* of 5 Sept. 1898), led to his resignation and withdrawal from political life. At his death he refused the Sacraments but accepted the Crucifix.
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