As you probably learned in school, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo was an important event that led to the outbreak of the Great War, which is perhaps better known as World War I. The death of the archduke placed a certain Charles of Hapsburg as the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungary throne. Just two years later, when the Emperor Franz Joseph died, the twenty-nine-year-old Charles became Emperor of Austro-Hungary. Today, that certain Charles is now known as Blessed Charles of Austria.
Early Life of Charles of Hapsburg
Charles was born in 1887 to Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony. The marriage of the archduke and the princess was not necessarily a good match, but they were committed to raising their children and preparing them to be successors to the the throne.
Charles received a strong Catholic education which helped grow his devotion to the Holy Eucharist and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His catechist was the Dominican Fr. Nobert Geggerle who described the young boy as, "a very modest child, as pious as he could be, who loved the truth and had a tender conscience ... He was never angry, self-willed, self-righteous or quarrelsom; he didn't hold a grudge." Although initially privately taught, he took his high school classes at a Benedictine school in Vienna.
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Military Life
When he was seventeen years of age, he entered the army. After a year of military training, he was made a lieutenant and was assigned to a cavalry regiment. Over the next several years, with the exception of four semesters spent studying law and political science in Prague, Charles served in the military. His assignments included being stationed in Bohemia, Galacia, and Vienna. By the age of twenty-seven, he had been promoted to colonel.
After the death of Archduke Ferdinand which made Charles the heir to the Austro-Hungary throne, the Emperor Francis Joseph had Charles visit the troops at the various command posts and become familiar with the military high command. He led several campaigns in Italy and Romania which, although showing a good grasp of strategy and daring, were only somewhat successful.
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Marriage to Princess Zita
In 1911, he married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. They had met when Charles was stationed in Bohemia and had been introduced by Charles' aunt. Over the course of several months, they fell in love and began to build a relationship which would be strong enough to see them through good times and bad times. Zita was a wonderful match for her husband. They shared a great love of Christ and His Church and were firmly committed to living the Gospel in their roles as husband and wife, parents, and royalty.
During their marriage of ten years, they had eight children. As committed Catholics, they practiced marital fidelity, attended mass, obeyed the authority of the Church, especially in the pope, and had great devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ascending to the Throne and Efforts for Peace
Then on November 21, 1916, Emperor Franz Joseph, who had ruled for sixty-nine years, died. Subsequently, Charles became the emperor of the Austro-Hungary empire and commander-in-chief of all the military forces of the empire. He immediately began efforts to use his authority to foment social reform and peace. As Archduke Ferdinand had been, Charles was opposed to the war. Charles had seen the horrors of modern warfare firsthand, and he was committed to bringing peace as soon as possible.
When Pope Benedict XV proposed a peace plan, Charles I was the only European leader to support it. Charles I also began secret peace talks with the French that broke down with disagreements regarding the recognition of certain territories in Italy.
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Post-War Exile
At the end of the war, Charles I proclaimed that the peoples of Austria and Hungary could determine what government they should have. He stopped short of abdication with the hope that the people might want the monarchy to be part of the new government. Eventually, the Austrian parliament exiled him and he relocated to Switzerland. With the loss of his throne, his income, and his country, he had been brought to a very low point indeed. Yet, both Charles and Zita continued to trust in God and in each other.
With the support of Hungarians, he twice attempted to regain his throne. However, because he did not want to start a civil war, he stopped the efforts both times.
Eventually, he traveled with his family to Portugal where he died of pneumonia at the age of thirty-four. Shortly before his death, he prayed to commend his wife and all his children, including the one who would be born after his death, to the Lord. The last words he whispered to his wife were: "I love you endlessly."
The Legacy of Charles of Austria
World War I was one of the deadliest wars of all time and many leaders in Europe were viewed unfavorably in its aftermath. However, the French novelist, Anatole France wrote,
๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ญ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ. ๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต.
At his beatification on October 2, 2004, St. John Paul II said:
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ด๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐จ๐ฏ๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ'๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ข, ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด "๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ". ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ถ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ณ, ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ, ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ต ๐๐.
Interestingly, when the Church set his feast day, instead of setting it on the day of his death like many saints, the Church placed the feast day on October 21st which is the anniversary of his marriage to his wife Zita.
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Feast day (memorial): October 21st