Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 17 August 1887
- It is interesting that Blessed Charles I of Habsburg was a devout Catholic, as was his wife, Servant of God Zita of Bourbon-Parma. The process of her beatification has also been initiated.
Blessed Charles I of Austria was born on this day in 1887.
His mother was Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, the wife of Archduke Otto Franz of Austria (the younger brother of the famous Archduke Franz Ferdinand). After his uncle Franz Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo in 1914, the younger Blessed Charles I of Austria became the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne (his father had died back in 1906).
Blessed Charles I of Austria was born in the castle Persenbeug in Lower Austria. That castle is located right next to the Danube River, some 10 km upstream from the famous Melk Abbey. It is interesting that Charles had no part in running state affairs during the reign of his granduncle, Emperor Francis Joseph, but only after the murder of Franz Ferdinand, the previous heir to the throne.
It is interesting that Blessed Charles I of Austria was a devout Catholic, as was his wife, Servant of God Zita of Bourbon-Parma. The process of her beatification has also been initiated. The two of them had as many as eight children during around 10 years of marriage (when he died). Blessed Charles I of Austria died at the age of only 34, but his wife lived to be 97.
