Gustav Piffl was born in Lanškroun, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father, Rudolf Piffl, was a bookseller and shopkeeper. He volunteered for a year in the Austrian army as a young man. After deciding to become a priest he enrolled in the Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto in Rome and later became an Augustinian canon at the Abbey of Klosterneuburg, Austria, in 1883. His name in religion was Friedrich. He finished his theological studies at the University of Vienna.
Priesthood
He was ordained on 8 January 1888 and served afterwards as a priest in various parishes of the Archdiocese of Vienna. He was the pastor of Klosterneuburg's abbey church until 1913 and led the community as its provost from 1907 to 1913.
Piffl visited the United States in 1926, giving the opening address (in German) at Chicago's Eucharistic Congress.[2]
He was not born an aristocrat (his father was a book-binder), but received the title of prince-archbishop of Vienna, holding office at the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918. When he died in 1932 in Vienna at the age of 67, he was the last to hold the title.[1]
References
^ ab"Cardinal Piffl". Catholic Union and Times. Buffalo, New York. 28 April 1932. p. 2.
^"250,000 Reverent Women". The News-Herald. Chicago. 22 June 1926. p. 1.
