RUDIGIER, Franz Josef, Venerable. - Bishop of Linz (Upper Austria), b. at Parthenen (Vorarlberg) on 6 April 1811, d. at Linz on 19 Nov. 1884.
After his ecclesiastical studies at Bressanone, he was ordained a priest (12 April 1835) and entered the care of souls, but he was soon sent for higher studies to Vienna, and then became a professor at the seminary of Bressanone. Recalled to Vienna (1845) as director of the Frintanaeum (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 as provost of St. Candido, and from 1850 as canon of the cathedral of Bressanone and rector of the Seminary. In 1852 Francis Joseph appointed R. bishop of Linz (19 Dec.), and he was consecrated on 5 June 1853.
R. was a zealous, exemplary bishop, a strenuous defender of the freedom and rights of the Church and of the rights of his see. He was, in accordance with the constitution, a member of the various chambers at Linz and at Vienna. Following a pastoral letter on the school and Catholic marriage he was accused and condemned, but pardoned through the direct intervention of the Emperor; he had long struggles because of the unjust seizure of the properties of the episcopal mensa (1869-71). He was a great preacher, supported the Catholic press, promoted the Catholic social movement and the various ecclesiastical and civil associations of Catholics, and valiantly defended the confessional school. The diocese had existed for only half a century, and R. did a very great deal for its definitive organization; considering the inadequacy of the Cathedral, the former church of the Jesuits, he began in 1862 the grandiose new Gothic Cathedral, of which he himself saw completed the votive chapel and part of the choir, as well as the bell tower (the consecration of the whole complex took place only in 1924). The introduction of the cause of his beatification took place on 6 Dec. 1905.
His successor, Msgr. Doppelbauer, published the selected sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1901-1905), the spiritual exercises (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908); the pastoral letters (1888) and other volumes of sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908).
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe Löw