The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-12-13
Pious and Romantic:
Austrian Family Shows
Real Courage and Unity

" t - SUN vs.
Various diocesan papers recently carried the news
that the pilgrimage place of, MarlazeH In Austria was
celebrating its eighth centenary.
This sanctuary is not only sacred to the Austrlans
themselves, but also to the nations nearby: the Hum
garians, Czechs, Slovenes. Austria has in the past been
solemnly dedicated to the Holy Virgin and on coins as
as on stamps we have seen the picture OF the
magma Mater Austriae' THE Great Mother OF Austrla)
always copied from the very ancient s%culptured statue
of Our Lady in the Abbey Church of Mariazel.
Not far from Mariazell, surrounded By, beautiful
mountains, is the "Brandhof," the residence of the chief
OF the family of the Counts Meran. It is not a very dis
tlnguished building, nor are the Merans an ancient
devotion and they organized a big family pilgrimage to
Mariazell.
Everybody who had Meran blood in his veins, as
long as he or she could walk, came to worship in com
mon. Whoever was married to a Meran also joined in.
Almost a hundred people arrived on foot from the
'Brandhof" in an impressive little procession. A Count
Modern Arts director with the same name and whose
mother is a Meran, celebrated the Mass and delivered
a sermon on Christian family tradition:
Then the participants of the pilgrimage went wor-
shipping in the Saint Ladislas Chapel whose foundations
had been laid by Hungary's great canonized monarch.
There they found the flags and burning candles for
all the enSlaved nations, each one of them adopted
by an Austrian federal state; thus the 4nd fig
uresl as a patron Of Hungary, Syria, of Yugoslavia, and
so forth.
The Merans, as we have said, are not an ancient
family, but their origin, by European standards, is most
romantic. One of our most gifted princes wa Arch
duke John, brother of Francis l. Emperor of Austria.
and grandson of the devout Empress Maria Theresa.
Archduke John was a military man, a most able
administrator, a scholar, a famous hunter and climber
who loved equally serious studies and the mountains.
He also was a devoted son of the Church. One nice
day he boarded the mail coach in Aussee (Styria) and
saw to his surprise that instead Of the coachman a very
pretty young girl held the reins of the horses.
Questioned by him she explained that she substi-
tuted for her sick father. A lively conversation ensued
between the Archduke and the peasant girl whose name
was Anna Plochl.
To cut a long story short, the Archduke fell in love
with this gay child of the mountains and decided to
marry nary + h ner, inns snIp1 plan n. could not be carried ear ed out QUITO too
of royal blood. CThe members of all Continental dynas-
ties are not even permitted to %intermarry with the no
bility, but only with members of other ruling families)
Yet Archduke John was determined to marry this beau
tiful girl and he succeeded in getting the permission of
the Emperor for a morganatic marriage.
Anna Plochl was first elevated to the rank of a
Baroness of Brandhof, the estate Archduke John in
habited in Syria, and then to one of a Countess of
Meran. Her children could not be %archdukes; they car
ried the title of Counts and CountesseS of Meran.
This marriage fired the imagination Of all Austr-
ans. Numerous plays and songs were made about this
love,match which, after all, was a great deal more in
spring than certain highly publcized marriages in
royal quarters which we witnessed in our lifetime. Il
Archduke John, after this marriage, enjoyed the
great z IT. prestige OF an upright man man ne became am a l Regent
Diet and was highly esteemed by all classes and layers
of the German and Austrian people.
His marriage was an extremely happy and exempt
ay one. John and Anna had numerous children and
among their descendants we find a great many priests
and nuns. In Austrian society one can recognize them
dlILOSI llIHcuudLcly IL Sight UcCduoc Cucy liz oil tdAs
but heavily built, and there is something peasantlike
and rural in their appearance.
They are strongly family minded and the new fami-
lies they founded are blessed with many children.
They have the characteristic Meran-warmth and direct
ness about them, and according to their moods they will
explain that it is either 'sthe Habsburg' or ''the Plochr'
in me. They have a p%roverbial loyalty to each other and
also to the surviving Plochls in the Aussee region whom
they treat like cousins and good relatives, calling them
by their first names and the familiar "thou'' which they
also return.
One branch went to Hungary where they inherited
a castle. When it was confiscated in 1947, the old Count,
instead of fleeing west and retaining Austrian citizen
ship, decided to work as a farmland with one of the
local peasants.
The almost seventy-year old man worked down to
his knees in water to plant rice.
He refused to give in.
Another Meran, my wifes aunt, a mother of eleven
children with white hair, took last year a car, two OF
her sons, and three rifles. She motored right into the
heart of flaming Hungary, liberated a niece with four
children married to a Hungarian and hurried them back,
past roaring Russian tanks.
If Europe we're peopled by Merans, we, indeed,
would not be in the miserable position where we are.
scrjbes the table as being evrv. That is probably the table that
Cd: the table saw IN Rome was pointed out to you. The
was long. Holv Grail was the chaIice used
A. Ricciotti in his Life Of by Our Lord at the Last Sup