Lev Skrbenský z Hříště

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

Of uncertain but undoubtedly wealthy background (it is sometimes believed he was an illegitimate child of the Habsburg Monarchy) , Lev Skrbensky z Hriste was educated at the prestigious seminary of Olomouc and during the 1880s worked on a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. After being ordained in 1889, he went into the Austro-Hungarian Army and spent the following decade serving as an army chaplain.

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.^[1] He received the red hat on 9 June 1902.^[2] He participated in the 1903 and 1914 conclaves, and in 1916 was transferred to the prestigious 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 because his poor health and did not participate in the 1922 conclave.

Although his health remained very poor, Skrbensky z Hriste almost lived long enough to see the 1939 conclave. He was the last living cardinal elevated by Pope Leo XIII, and as with the corresponding cardinal of Pius IX, Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, he managed to outlive his nearest rival for this honour, Vincenzo Vannutelli, by a very long period (over eight years).

Footnotes

1. ↑ Since then no man has been elevated to the cardinalate at such a young age. The youngest in the past hundred years have been two Patriarchs of Lisbon: Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira elevated in 1929 at the age of 41 and António Ribeiro elevated in 1973 at the age of 44.
2. ↑ "Latest intelligence - Papal Consistory". The Times (36790). London. 10 June 1902. p. 7. 

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