BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, June 29, 1822

Today in Vienna, on the feast day of Apostles Peter and Paul, Beethoven’s principal patron Archduke and Cardinal Rudolph consecrates Dr. Gregor Thomas [Grzegorz Tomasz] Ziegler (1770-1852) as Bishop of Tyniec. Tyniec is an historic village in Poland on the Vistula River, near Krakow. It is best known for the Benedictine Abbey founded by King Casimir the Restorer in 1044, which centers around the Gothic Church of St. Peter and Paul. Ziegler used that Abbey as his seat until 1826, the abbey having been liquidated by the Austrians in 1816. The monks did not return until 1939, the abbey having been unoccupied for over a century.

Photo of Benedictine Abbey at Tyniec by Kriksos, CC BY 3.0

Bishop Ziegler had been ordained a priest in the order of St. Benedict in 1793. In 1827, he became Bishop of Linz, where he served until his death. Ziegler was a professor of theology and concentrated on the scientific justification of Catholic dogma. From the Wiener Zeitung of July 6, 1822, at 609.