A small child in a tuxedo took to the stage and waved a flag with the coat of arms of the Habsburg Empire: a two-headed eagle on a black and yellow field, with a crown on each wing. About 300 people stood in the auditorium of this public school in Plano, Texas, some with feelings bordering on reverence, as a speaker played Haydn’s Kaiser Hymn, the imperial anthem of the Habsburg Empire. Some looked respectful but confused. It was the second time we heard it that day.
We were in the fourth hour of the Symposium for Blessed Karl, a traveling roadshow of clergy, modern Habsburgs, unknown writers, and local true believers. They hold these symposiums in various locations around the United States, sometimes on campus, sometimes in rented rooms. It may also include a Latin Mass. Every once in a while, like today, a bag comes along with a speaker in it.
There was a souvenir market outside the auditorium. Small religious publishers published books ranging from “studies” on the lives of minor saints to horrifying conspiracy theories about dark forces within the church. Its title was something like “Infiltration” with Dan Brown sprinkled with canon. There were also coffee companies offering different roasts named after different saints. St. Benedict’s dark chocolate hazelnuts were on sale. One woman was selling tin can planters with portraits of the Habsburg royal family, including, among other things, Emperor Charles I, also known as Blessed Karl.
King Karl I of Austria was the monarch of the House of Habsburg during the last two years of the empire, from 1916 to 1918. He’s a nice guy but naive. Martin Reidy’s The Habsburgs: To Rule the World devotes about 12 of its 400 pages to him, introducing him with the then-standard knock against Karl. A 20-year-old who thinks, speaks, and acts like a 10-year-old. ” In the words of Junior Soprano, he didn’t have the makings of a varsity player. After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Empire into nation-states, Karl and his wife Zita were exiled to Madeira in 1922. They were very kind to their servants and seemed to love each other very much.
The push for Karl’s canonization began in the 1950s, but gained momentum in 2003 when Pope John Paul II recognized Karl’s “venerable” status. Less than a year later, he became known as “Blessed” in the Catholic Church for his work in treating a nun’s varicose veins in Brazil. The only higher ranking is canonization. saint. The fact that Karl was in charge of a unit that used chemical weapons (poison gas) in World War I does not help his case.
