As the church for the imperial court, it was the scene of many Hapsburg weddings, among them Archduchess (and future Empress) Maria Theresa in 1736 to Duke Francis of Lorraine, Marie Antoinette to Louis XVI of France in 1770, Archduchess Marie Louise in 1810 to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France (by proxy -- he did not show up), and Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854 to Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria.
The establishment of the Diocese of Vienna in 1729 gave rise to a tradition for the newly appointed archbishop of Vienna to be clothed in the Augustinian Church. The tradition was kept up until the appointment of Cardinal Franz König.
In 1783, Emperor Joseph II had the church refashioned in the Gothic style, under the direction of architect, J. F. Hetendorf von Hohenberg, in the course of which eighteen Baroque side altars that had been made between 1630 and 1780 were removed.
A new side altar was added in 2004, dedicated to Emperor Karl I of Austria (1887 - 1922) who is on the path to being recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Augustinians in early Vienna
The condition of the Augustinian presence in Vienna in 1306 was such that, at the Augustinian General Chapter of that year, Vienna was granted approval to open a studium generale, an international house of higher studies for Augustinians.
The friary in Vienna became a centre for intellectual currents with an Augustinian orientation. Among its members who took part in the university life of the capital of Austria the name of friar Augustine Molitor of Ingolstadt (died 1517) stands out. For more than fifteen years he was professor of theology at the University of Vienna and as a learned humanist he found himself in frequent contact with the followers of humanism of southern Germany.
In 1603-1604 the Augustinian houses in Austria and Bohemia, previously part of the Province of Bavaria, became a separate Province.
With the seat of government of the new Province being at Prague, the Augustinians in Vienna and elsewhere in Austria felt that this was not particularly a great advance from their previous pattern of being governed from Munich in Bavaria.
The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636.
This was of consolation to the Augustinians of Vienna, who in 1630 by decision of the Pope were forced to hand their monastery next to the Hofburg (royal palace) to the Discalced Augustinians. A few years later, however, the Order of Saint Augustine returned to Vienna by building a new foundation in a suburban section known as the Landstrasse, which became a new centre of Augustinian religious life.
The Augustinians there resumed the Order’s tradition as professors at the university. They were augmented by learned Augustinians exiled from elsewhere and others from the Province of Cologne. By 1646 the community exceeded thirty friars.
Information on the later history of the Order of Saint Augustine with the Augustinerkirche appears on a following page.
(Continued on the next page.)
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The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636.
The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636. This was of consolation to the Augustinians of Vienna, who in 1630 by decision of the Pope were forced to hand their monastery next to the (royal palace) to the Discalced Augustinians.
The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636. The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636. This was of consolation to the Augustinians of Vienna, who in 1630 by decision of the Pope were forced to hand their monastery next to the (royal palace) to the Discalced Augustinians.
The matter was redressed by the establishment of the Augustinian Province of Austria in 1636. This was of consolation to the Augustinians of Vienna, who in 1630 by decision of the Pope were forced to hand their monastery next to the (royal palace) to the Discalced Augustinians.
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Austria: Vienna - 01