RUDIGIER, FRANZ JOSEF, venerable. — Bishop of Linz (Upper Austria), born at Parthenen (Vorarlberg) on 6 April 1811, died at Linz on 19 November 1884.
After ecclesiastical studies at Bressanone, he was ordained a priest (12 April 1835) and entered pastoral ministry, but was soon sent to Vienna for advanced studies; he 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 Francesco Giuseppe (Austria) and Massimiliano (Mexico). In 1848 he returned to the diocese as provost of S. Candido, and from 1850 as a canon of the cathedral of Bressanone and rector of the Seminary. In 1852 Francesco Giuseppe appointed R. bishop of Linz (19 December), and he was consecrated on 5 June 1853.
R. was a zealous and exemplary bishop, a staunch defender of the freedom and rights of the Church and of the rights of his see. In accordance with the constitution, he belonged to the various chambers in Linz and Vienna. Following a pastoral letter on the school and Catholic marriage, he was accused and condemned, but pardoned through the Emperor’s direct intervention; he endured long struggles because of the unjust sequestration of the property 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 effectively defended confessional education. The diocese had existed for only half a century, and R. did very much to establish it permanently; considering the cathedral inadequate, he began in 1862 the magnificent new Gothic cathedral on the site of the former Jesuit church. He himself saw the votive chapel and part of the choir completed, as well as the bell tower (the consecration of the entire complex took place only in 1924). The introduction of the cause for his beatification took place on 6 December 1905.
His successor, Msgr. Doppelbauer, published the selected sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1901–1905), the exercises (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908), the pastorals (1888), and other volumes of sermons (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1908).