They seem to be giving him the works. The Requiem Mass, the fourth of five in three countries (the second was broadcast live and in full on Bavarian television, and followed by a large civic reception given by the Prime Minister of that State), celebrated in Saint Stephen's Cathedral by His Eminence Christoph Cardinal Count von Schönborn. His heart to go to the Pannonhalma Archabbey, and the rest of him to be processed through the streets of Vienna to be buried with his ancestors in the Habsburg Imperial Crypt of the Imperial Capuchin Church. One trusts that the friars will observe the traditional ceremony whereby, a mace having knocked on the door, they ask who is there and the full list of imperial titles, recalling Woodrow Wilson's real, because Catholic, target in 1917, is announced. A friar replies, "We don't know him." A second knock, a second enquiry, and the answer, "A poor sinner." Only at that is the door opened and the body taken into the crypt.
Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria; King of Jerusalem; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, Oświęcim and Zator, Teschen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg et cetera; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and the Windic March; Grand Voivod of the Voivode of Serbia et cetera; Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Austrian Branch), Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, Knight Grand Cross of the Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold, Knight of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (Savoy), Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Januarius (Bourbon-Sicily), Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Hubert (Wittelsbach-Bavaria), Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa (Braganza-Portugal).
"We don't know him."
A poor sinner.
In he comes.
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Great point about Wilson's war aims.
ReplyDeleteAnd if each and every one of those titles had still been a living reality, there would have been no Hitler, no Mussolini, no Tito.
Quite so.
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