1827 HANDWRITTEN ALS BY AUSTRIAN CROWN PRINCE, PRIEST AND REPUTED MIRACLE WORKER

On offer is an original handwritten ALS, dated Vienna, 1827, 1p, approx. 4-3/4 x 7-3/4 in. Prince Hohenlohe [Alexander Leopold Franz Emmerich, prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst] (1794 & 1849), priest and reputed miracle-worker, was born at Kupferzell, near Waldenburg, on the 17th of August 1794. His mother, the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman, entrusted his early education to the church and ex-Jesuit Rid. In 1804 he entered the Theresianum at Vienna, in 1808 the academy at Bern, in 1810 the archiepiscopal seminary at Vienna, and afterwards he studied at Tyrnau and Ellwangen. He was ordained priest in 1815, and in the following year he went to Rome. While in Rome, he entered the society of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart. Subsequently, at Munich and Bamberg, he was blamed for Jesuit and Obscurantist tendencies, but obtained considerable reputation as a preacher. His first so-called miraculous cure was 'effected' in conjunction with a peasant, Martin Michel, on a princess of Schwarzenberg who had been for some years paralytic. Immediately he acquired such fame as a performer of miraculous cures that multitudes from various countries flocked to partake of the beneficial influence of his supposed supernatural gifts. Ultimately, on account of the interference of the authorities with his operations, he went in 1821 to Vienna and then to Hungary, where he became canon at Grosswardein and in 1844 titular bishop of Sardica. He died at Voslau near Vienna on 17 November 1849 . He was the author of a number of ascetic and controversial writings, which were collected and published in one edition by S. Brunner in 1851.Signed Alexander Grosswardein. Research believes this is written in Hungarian but is unconfirmed and as such the content of this letter is unknown. VG.