Leopold Maximilian Graf von Firmian (11 October 1766,

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ce ...

– 29 November 1831,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was Auxiliary Bishop in Passau and Titular Bishop of Tiberias from 1797, from 1800 to 1816 Bishop of Lavant, was appointed Archbishop of Salzburg in 1816, but in 1818 was only confirmed as administrator of the

Archdiocese of Salzburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg ( la, Archidioecesis Salisburgensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese ...

. From 1822 to 1831 he was Prince-Archbishop of Vienna.

Biography

Coming from the Tyrolean

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

of Firmian, he was

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and Passau in 1780. On 23 September 1792, he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

a priest in Salzburg. Five years later, on 24 July 1797, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop in Passau and Titular Bishop of Tiberias. The episcopal consecration was bestowed upon him on 5 November 1797 by the

Bishop of Passau The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Leopold Leonhard von Thun. In 1800, he was appointed

Bishop of Lavant The Diocese of Lavant(tal) ( la, Lavantina) was a suffragan bishopric of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, established 1228 in the Lavant Valley of Carinthia. In 1859 the episcopal see was re-assigned to Maribor (''Marburg an der Drau'') in present-da ...

and, in 1816, Archbishop of Salzburg. Because of the unclear political conditions, he was only confirmed in 1818 as the diocesan administrator. On 18 January 1822, Emperor Francis I appointed him

Archbishop of Vienna The Archbishop of Vienna is the prelate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna who is concurrently the metropolitan bishop of its ecclesiastical province which includes the dioceses of Eisenstadt, Linz and St. Pölten. From 1469 to 1513, bi ...

, the Papal confirmation took place on 19 April of the same year. Leopold Maximilian Graf von Firmian (retouched)

He is portrayed as a praisewelling church prince who fulfilled the will of the Emperor in his diocese and allowed the interventions of late

Josephinism Josephinism was the collective domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1765–1790). During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy (1780–1790), he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms ...

in church life. He strove for the church song and had in 1824 created a directory of all songs that were sung in the parishes. During his tenure came the founding of the ''

Leopoldine Society The Leopoldine Society was an organization established in Vienna for the purpose of aiding Catholic missions in North America. Based on the French model of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Leopoldine Society was founded in 1829 i ...

of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

in support of the American missions'' on 13 May 1829. In 1894, ''Firmiangasse'' in Vienna-

Hietzing Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...

was named after him.

Bibliography

* Franz Loidl: ''Geschichte des Erzbistums Wien.'' Herold, Wien u. a. 1983, . * Ernst Tomek: ''Kirchengeschichte Österreichs.'' Band 3: ''Das Zeitalter der Aufklärung und des Absolutismus.'' Tyrolia, Innsbruck u. a. 1959. * Josef Wodka: ''Kirche in Österreich. Wegweiser durch ihre Geschichte.'' Herder, Wien 1959.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Firmian, Leopold Maximilian von 1766 births 1831 deaths Archbishops of Vienna Bishops of Lavant