VORTHEY, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. — Augustinian, in secular life Andrea, born in Brünn on 10 Aug. 1794, died there on 15 May 1876.
Having entered the Order in 1811 and been ordained priest in 1817, he was immediately assigned to pastoral ministry and in 1821 was named chaplain to the Spielberg prison and to the female hospital of St. Elizabeth. For a period of one year—from spring 1823 to Apr. 1824—he was entrusted with the spiritual care of Italian political prisoners held in the fortress, and chap. 78 of *Le Mie prigioni* is entirely devoted to the gentleness, wisdom, tact, and discretion of this worthy Augustinian, who—so as to better fulfill his office—learned the Italian language. He comforted the final hours of Antonio Oroboni and formed a particular friendship with Silvio Pellico. As reported by the Saluzzese and confirmed by official Habsburg documents, he would spend long, affectionate hours with the prisoners and provided them with numerous ascetical books; alarmed by this, the Austrian authorities soon relieved him of this pious duty and, to the great regret of the Italian detainees, replaced him with Paulowich (q.v.). He subsequently served as parish priest at Küce, at Vronov, and then at Brünn, as prior of his convent, as counsellor to the episcopal curia, and as professor and episcopal commissioner for religious instruction in the city’s schools. A member of the local historical society and recipient of the Austrian Gold Cross with crown for his cultural and religious merits, V. was, as prior of the Augustinian convent in Brünn, the most effective collaborator of his abbot, the biologist Fr. Giovanni Gregorio Mendel.
