What a Habsburg emperor who became a Blessed and has a growing US following can teach today’s politicians

Twenty years ago, the last reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary was beatified by St Pope John Paul II in Rome.

The legacy of Emperor Karl von Habsburg (1887 – 1922) is complex and the source of contention and disagreement. While his attempts to preserve the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the outbreak of the First World War, after the assassination of his uncle Franz Ferdinand, failed and led to acrimony in his home country, his commitment to peace and his devotion to his duties as emperor are widely recognised. His beatification reflects his reputation and character as a pious and selfless leader.

The American Habsburg expert Suzanne Pearson is a delegate to the “Kaiser Karl Gebetsliga” (Emperor Karl Prayer League) in the US. Pearson admires Emperor Karl (Charles) as a role model and inspiration for the challenges that face today’s world. In the following interview she discusses the reasons for that admiration and the important relevance for modern politics.

In your opinion, what relevance does the beatification of Emperor and King Karl have for today?

The beatification of Emperor Karl was significant, first of all, because he was a layman and he was not a martyr. For non-martyrs, the Church must prove heroic virtue. The reason that most saints and blesseds are priests and religious is because religious orders and dioceses have the internal infrastructure to investigate the holiness of their members, and the persons who must be called to testify are easily located within the same religious order or diocese. With lay people, it is incredibly harder. Identifying and locating potential witnesses, selecting and financing postulators and others to advance the cause is a process that can be lengthy and costly.

The second reason is that Emperor Karl was an exemplary husband and father, whose example is so needed today with all the attacks on the family. The fact that he was also Emperor and King, and thus the “father of many nations”, adds to his appeal for young couples, who often have to face daunting demands on their time and resources while trying to raise their families. People of all ages can’t help but be attracted to a brave soldier who worked for peace, someone with a humble nature and sense of humour despite his high station; someone who was able to forgive despite huge losses and bitter betrayals. 

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that – compared to many saints – we have so many pictures, some actual film footage, and hundreds of anecdotes with actual dialog, letting his admirable character and lovable personality come through to future generations. Saint Pope John Paul II went out of his way to beatify and canonise people from different countries and cultures and from all walks of life. In this age of democracy, a crowned king might seem to be the least likely candidate. But he also proves that holiness is open to everyone, even the least likely.

What should Christians take away from this monarch’s life?

Christians should honor this monarch for his heroic virtue – every virtue lived to a heroic degree. This means faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance, as well as the subordinate virtues, and also faithfulness to the duties of one’s state in life. He was able to achieve this not in the quiet of a monastery but in the jarring environment of secular politics, in wartime, in the conflict-ridden 20th century. 

The Church produces a Positio, which proves the heroic virtue of the candidate being studied. Emperor Karl’s Positio contains thousands of pages, the testimony of dozens of witnesses – prelates, priests, statesmen, heads of State, military men, family, servants, nobility, common people, even political enemies of Emperor Karl – who all testify to his heroic virtue; I have studied the Positio and find it inspiring reading.

Could Emperor Karl also inspire the politicians of today and, if so, what could they learn from him?

Although it would be hard enough for any human being to achieve a heroic degree of virtue in every virtue, it must be especially hard for those in political life. Not only are the temptations to amass money, power and pleasure greater and more easily attainable in political life, but the political process itself is a source of temptation. 

Emperor Karl’s success was built on a foundation of compromise. Even though he was a monarch, he had to negotiate with foreign leaders, had to engage in international diplomacy, had to balance the competing demands of the various peoples and nations of his empire, had to take into account the rulings of provincial courts and legislative bodies, all of which involved a certain amount of compromise. 

His desire to rule justly led him to travel all over the Empire listening to people and addressing their grievances. Again, some compromise was necessary. His lesson to political leaders today is that compromise is good and necessary, but there is a certain line one may not cross. And that is the line set by God in His Ten Commandments. For instance: “Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt not steal”. Emperor Karl would be willing to sacrifice anything that was his, but he would not sacrifice an iota of what was commanded by God.

Emperor Karl is also a shining example to political leaders in all forms of government through his showing how to love the people under their authority, to seek justice for everyone, and to better the living conditions of people. Most of all he was open to the people, traveling great distances to listen to the people and to address their grievances.

Has a significant veneration of Emperor Karl developed in the countries of Central Europe’s Danube region and even beyond?

I have attended beautiful Masses and other events in honour of King Karl in Hungary; I have seen great devotion to him in many parts of Italy; I have seen his shrine in the cathedral of Bratislava, and have heard of great advances in devotion to him in Croatia and Czechia. But most of all, I know that in the United States, devotion to Emperor Karl is growing by leaps and bounds. 

Four or five new shrines to him are dedicated every year. Masses and other events in his honour are attended by hundreds of people, who always stay afterwards and ask many questions. Our website constantly sends out prayer cards, booklets, Novenas, statues and other devotional items. 

Recently, in such widely different places as Massachusetts and Louisiana, I was deeply moved to see crowds of 500 people or more in each case turn out to honour Blessed Karl and learn more about him. Couples seek his intercession to help them in their marriages. Many little baby boys are named Karl, others take “Karl” as their confirmation name, and many dress up like him on the Eve of All Saints. Blessed Karl has helped many babies to be born healthy after doctors had given up on them and urged their mothers to abort. He seems to have a specialty for helping babies and young children.

In Austria itself, Emperor Karl is forgotten or ignored. What does that say about the situation there?

After the war, when Emperor Karl was in exile, he never blamed the Austrian people for abandoning him when the war was lost, always saying how grateful he was that they had borne their sufferings so patiently for so long. The fact is that Emperor Karl was very popular among most of his people during much of his reign, and to this day, he is held in high regard by those Austrians whose information comes from direct source – for instance, stories passed down in their families from grandfathers who served under him in the war, or those who learned from the memories of his close associates in the early days of the Gebetsliga.

If there is still much opposition to Emperor Karl in Austria, it probably means that many people still believe the caricatures launched by enemies as war propaganda. Foreign enemies were not the only source. Then as now, there were powerful elements who opposed Emperor Karl not because he failed to live up to the ideals of a Christian monarch but precisely because he represented them all too well. But thanks to the research documented in the Positio and the openness of a new generation, the truth is finally coming out. 

Today in the US, we hear a lot about “disinformation” and “misinformation” in the public square, but it is not a new phenomenon. The deliberate destruction of Emperor Karl’s reputation was an early and particularly egregious example. Now, thanks to the internet age, people can learn about this holy leader from primary sources and need not depend on the narrative put forward by misguided elites.

If there is a reticence among some Austrians to warm to Emperor Karl, I believe it is only temporary. As soon as the virtues of Emperor Karl become well known, and his people come to realise how much he loved them “unto death”, the Austrians will understand why people all over the world envy them for being so especially loved by such a lovable Blessed.

Do you consider Emperor Karl to be a typical or an outstanding representative of the House of Habsburg?

In many ways, Emperor Karl is a typical Habsburg. He was a strong Catholic, he was aware of the history, blessings and prominence of his dynasty, and he felt a strong sense of responsibility for the peoples that God had entrusted to his care. As a strong Catholic, he took marriage very seriously, loved his wife with all his heart, and raised his children with the utmost care, especially for their spiritual development. This Catholic legacy of the Habsburg family was itself noteworthy among the ruling houses of Europe. And Emperor Karl was certainly not the first to distinguish himself as a military leader or as an emperor conducting the business of ruling with integrity and diligence.

In some ways, though, Emperor Karl was certainly extraordinary even as a Habsburg. The heights of his heroic virtue would be extraordinary in any family. And it is important to remember that this heroic virtue shone out not only during the time of his reign but equally during his exile and in the circumstances of his holy death. He also stood out, even among other Catholic leaders, for the depth of his prayer life. He was convinced that prayer – whether by contemplative monks and nuns, by ordinary people, and even in a unique way his own prayers as father of his peoples – had an important impact on the future of the peoples and nations of the Empire. He was a true contemplative in action.

Finally, Blessed Karl has the potential for impacting the people of our time, perhaps more than many ruler saints from earlier times, because his life speaks so eloquently to many of the pressing issues of our own time. Whether it’s the protection of life, the sanctity of marriage, the principle of subsidiarity in government, or remembering that promoting the welfare of the people includes their spiritual good above all, both the words and actions of Emperor Karl speak of exactly what our age needs to hear. And many people, especially the young, are welcoming it with open ears.

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Photo: Emperor Karl von Habsburg with his wife, Zita von Bourbon-Parma, and one of their eight children. (Image courtesy ‘Die Tagespost’.)

Stephan Baier has been the ‘Die Tagespost’ correspondent for Austria, South-East Europe and European politics since 1999. After studying theology in Regensburg, Rome and Munich, he was press spokesman and assistant to Archduke Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Emperor Karl, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (1994-99).

This article originally appeared in the weekly newspaper Die Tagespost, Germany’s leading Catholic newspaper for politics, society and culture; it is reproduced here with kind permission. Die Tagespost also runs the Tagespost Foundation for Catholic Journalism and the Pope Benedict XVI Institute.

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