Lev Skrbenský z Hříště,ýzHříště , also spelt Skrebensky (12 June 1863, Hausdorf (now a part of Bartošovice), Moravia, Austria-Hungary – 24 December 1938, Dlouhá Loučka, Czechoslovakia) was a prominent Cardinal in the Catholic Church during the early 20th century.

Born into a wealthy family, Lev Skrbenský z Hříště was educated at the seminary of Olomouc and during the 1880s worked on a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. During his stay in Rome he lived in the priest college Santa Maria dell'Anima and served there as a chaplain too. After being ordained in 1889, he went into the army of the Austrian Empire and spent the following decade serving as an army chaplain.

Lev Skrbenský z Hříště

He left his military duties in 1899, and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria selected him as Archbishop of Prague. Two years later, he was made a cardinal on 15 April 1901, at the age of thirty-seven. He received the red hat on 9 June 1902. Later that year, Lev (together with other Bohemian and Moravian bishops) was addressed in pope Leo's encyclical Quae Ad Nos. He participated in the 1903 and 1914 conclaves, and in 1916 was transferred to the see of Olomouc, to which he was elected by its cathedral chapter at the request of the Habsburg government. He resigned this see in 1920 due to poor health and did not participate in the 1922 conclave.

Lev Skrbenský z Hříště

Although his health remained very poor, Skrbenský z Hříště lived until 1938 and was the last cardinal created by Pope Leo XIII to die, outliving Vincenzo Vannutelli by more than eight years.

Lev Skrbenský z Hříště

Notes

References

External links

record at Catholic Hierarchy

1863 births

1938 deaths

Czech cardinals

Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII

Roman Catholic archbishops of Olomouc

Roman Catholic archbishops of Prague

20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Austria-Hungary

Burials at Saint Wenceslas Cathedral

Roman Catholic archbishops in Czechoslovakia

Habsburg Bohemian nobility

Moravian nobility

People from Nový Jičín District

Czech archbishops