Seckau, Diocese of

SECKAU, DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and abbey in Styria (Austria).

I. THE DIOCESE

The present diocese of S. has an area of 16,373 sq km with 1,106,581 inhabitants, of whom 970,000 are Catholics; it has 360 parishes in 64 deaneries, almost 1,000 priests and almost 2,000 nuns (1952 statistics). There is a theological faculty at the University, two seminaries, many institutes of education and instruction; almost all the orders and congregations of note are represented there.

The diocese of S. owes its origin to Archbishop Eberhard II of Salzburg, who, with the consent of Honorius III (22 July 1218) and of Emperor Frederick II (17 Feb. 1219), created, with its seat in the abbey of S., one of those suffragan bishoprics that are a unique peculiarity of the metropolis of Salzburg (v.). The diocese, of minimal extent, was established pro forma, inasmuch as the bishop of S. was in fact simply the vicar general of the archbishop (1218-1786) for the whole vast Alpine region of Upper and Lower Styria, so distant from the metropolitan see, and he exercised there a jurisdiction that, with the passage of time, became practically that of a true ordinary bishop. The first official residence was the castle of Seggau, in Lower Styria, a grandiose medieval complex; then, already from the 13th century, a palace in the capital of Styria, at Graz. The diocese also grew somewhat until the time of Joseph II, who, following the ecclesiastical reorganization of the Austrian territories, suppressed, with subsequent pontifical approval, the Salzburg suffragan bishoprics in their original form, replacing them with autonomous dioceses: for Styria he erected the see of S. with residence at Graz, for the whole of southern Styria, and the see of Leoben, with residence at Göss (v.), for northern Styria. In 1859, however, with another reorganization, the Slovene-speaking part of Styria was erected into a diocese of its own (Lavant, with its seat at Maribor), the diocese of Leoben was suppressed and the whole German-speaking part of Styria united in the single diocese of S., still with residence in the capital, Graz. In 1934, with the Austrian Concordat, the last prerogatives of the archbishop of Salzburg ceased, though he remains metropolitan according to common law.

Among the bishops of S. mention is made of Martin Brenner (1585-1615), called the "hammer of the Protestants," because he knew how to carry through with energy and constancy the difficult work of the Catholic Reform throughout Styria. In the last century a similar task fell to Bishop Roman Zängerle (1824-48), a disciple of St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, who had to overcome, through hard struggles and under immense difficulties, the most deplorable religious and political situation created by Josephinism. Great influence was exercised, in the age of the Counter-Reformation, by the University of Graz, founded expressly by Charles II (1585) and recognized by Sixtus V in 1586. Charles entrusted it to the Society of Jesus, which held it until its suppression (1773). During the 19th century, for many years, the Benedictines of Admont supplied the professors to the University.

II. THE ABBEY

Count Adalram of Waldeck erected in 1140, in the locality of the present-day St. Marcin (Upper Styria, then archdiocese of Salzburg), a small convent for the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. Already in 1143 it was transferred to the site of the present S., which was more suitable. The canonry flourished very soon, enriched by many donations; to it was added a monastery of canonesses, which died out after the devastations of the Turks, at the end of the 15th century. Since 1359 the provost (abbot) has enjoyed the right of pontifical insignia. The prosperity of the abbey was cut short by Joseph II, who suppressed it in 1782. In 1883 the Benedictines of the Congregation of Beuron acquired the remaining buildings, and erected there the present Benedictine abbey. In the course of the years they carried out profound restorations and reconstructions, especially of the basilica, opened a public gymnasium with a boarding school, and devoted themselves greatly to the liturgical apostolate. Under Nazism there was a new suppression (1941-45); but the recovery was assured and S. has returned to being one of the most prominent centers of Austrian cultural life. Notable are its many publications, especially in the fields of philosophy, history, Catholic culture and liturgy. The liturgical performances, especially at certain times of the year, have international fame. The library is modern.

The church, a Romanesque basilica of the Austro-Bavarian type, but with elements of the Saxon school, is one of the greatest examples, remaining almost intact, in the eastern Alpine territory. The first dedication dates back to 1162. The reconstructions following the fires, the transformation of the vaults (Gothic) and a radical modern restoration have not altered the severe and imposing general impression of the building. Many sepulchral slabs, Gothic and Renaissance, have been preserved, as well as the celebrated altar of provost Dirnberger, of 1507, in gilded and painted wood, with a strange representation of the Most Holy Trinity (three human persons, with a single trunk) crowning the Madonna. Most notable is the grandiose mausoleum of Charles II of Styria (d. 1590), a work of the late Renaissance and of Italian masters (Carlone, Verga, Ghisi and others), of an extraordinary unity and richness: it comprises the sarcophagus with Charles and his wife, figures of angels and various reliefs, stucco decorations, frescoes, marble and bronze balustrades, and a magnificent altar: the complex is set into the left apse of the Basilica. The convent was rebuilt during the 16th and 17th centuries, with a vast courtyard with Tuscan arcades, an internal cloister, partly still Romanesque and Gothic.

III. ART, ABBEYS, SANCTUARIES IN THE TERRITORY OF THE DIOCESE

Styria, inhabited since remote antiquity (the Erzberg, the iron mountain, was known to the Celts and Romans as were the salt works of Hall and Aussee, etc.), has churches that go back to the era of Salzburg's second missionary penetration, after 950 (St. Michael).

In Graz, note should be taken of the Cathedral (so designated since 1786) of St. Giles, formerly the parish church of the city, rebuilt by Emperor Frederick III (1438-60), declared a court church, from 1577 entrusted to the care of the Society of Jesus; a late Gothic construction, with very vast naves and remains of frescoes; altars and sacred furnishings in the Baroque style. Of great artistic interest in Graz are other Gothic or Baroque churches, belonging to various ancient Orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Teutonic Order). Noteworthy are the Landhaus, seat of the government and of the Diet, the work of D. Allio, with the finest Renaissance courtyard outside Italy; the Zeughaus, with the most complete armory, the work of A. Solari (1643-1645); the Mausoleum of Ferdinand II (1614-39); and the Joanneum, a folklore museum among the first founded (1811).

In the diocese of S. there exist the greatest Austrian sanctuary, Mariazell (v.), and the abbey of St. Lambrecht (v.), the former Cistercian abbey of Neuburg, founded in 1327, as well as the better-known one of Admont.

This last Benedictine abbey, in the Enns Valley, in a very picturesque position, was founded in 1072 with the estates of St. Emma (v.), by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Gebhard. The first dedication of the church took place in 1074. The monks came from the abbey of St. Peter in Salzburg. The abbey soon affiliated itself with the reform of Hirsau and had a golden period in the 13th-14th centuries, especially under the abbots Godfrey of Vemmingen (from 1138), Henry V (1275-97), and the renowned and most learned Engelbert (v.). From about 1115 there also existed a convent of Benedictine nuns, with a famous school, extinct in 1570. After a standstill during the 16th century, a second flowering began, in the Baroque era, with extensive reconstructions. In 1664 a gymnasium was opened, expanded in 1710 with two sections of philosophy and theology. Joseph II transferred the gymnasium to the city of Leoben, where the monks held the chairs until the last years of the past century. A terrible fire in 1865 destroyed the church, the monastery and the village, with the exception of the grandiose and celebrated library. The church was rebuilt in modern Gothic forms, the monastery in simple forms of modern Baroque. The library, rich in about 80,000 volumes, many manuscripts and incunabula, with an adjoining museum, is housed in a wing built by G. Hayberger, 70 m. in length, with frescoes by B. Altomonte and sculptures by J. Th. Stammel, rococo shelving, in white and gold. The Nazi suppression (1939-45) inflicted no slight losses on the library and the convent. The abbey has the care of 29 incorporated parishes, which comprise the whole immense territory in which it exercised for many centuries an intense cultural activity of every kind. Noteworthy in the treasury, which includes the remains saved from the fire: vestments, sculptures, minor arts, from the Romanesque to the Baroque era. Nearby, on a hill, stands the sanctuary of Frauenberg, a jewel of Baroque architecture. In many churches belonging to the abbey of Admont one admires the wooden sculptures of J. Th. Stammel, the abbey's own artist (1699-1765). - See plate XIV.