Pietas Austriaca: Austrian Religious Practices in the Baroque Era (Central European Studies)

Anna Coreth's work appeared originally in 1959. Her interpretation focuses on the relationship of Catholic religious practices and symbols to the House of Habsburg from the Counter or Catholic Reformation until the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Coreth demonstrates how elements of religiosity and spirituality, particularly those surrounding the Catholic Eucharistic and Marian celebrations, became part of the Habsburg ruling style. She discusses the imperial house's dedication to these rituals and what the religious practices came to mean to individual members of the Habsburg monarchy, such as Rudolf I, Ferdinand I, II, and III, Maria Theresa, and Joseph II. Coreth demonstrates the Habsburg monarchy's devotion to specific Catholic rituals and how these rituals in turn acquired political significance. Moreover, Coreth also examines the links between this Habsburg religious style, on the one hand, and the institutional Catholic Church, popular piety, religious orders, and mainstream political developments. The book is an extremely rich source for early modern and modern Austrian history.