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Karl was an emperor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All his life, he observed the devotions of the First Friday of the Sacred Heart and the Holy Hour which preceded this Friday. One day before his betrothal with his future wife, Zita, on June 13, 1911, Karl gave her the betrothal ring with these words, “Now we must help each other to go to heaven.” In the same year, 1911, Zita was received in a private audience by Pope Saint Pius X. Even though Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was the heir of the throne, was alive and nobody thought he would soon die, the Holy Pontiff said prophetically to Zita, “Now you are Mary, the heir of the throne.” Karl had engraved into the wedding rings these words, “Sub Tuum Praesidium confugimus Sancta Dei Genetrix,” which means, “We fly to thy protection, O Holy Mother of God.”
October 2, 1918, the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, was a special day in the life of Blessed Karl and of his family and his people. On this day, the Emperor recited the text of the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He recited the text firmly and fervently, putting all his soul into each of these words. On this day, his firstborn son, Otto, received his first Holy Communion. The entire staff of the court made a spiritual retreat beforehand, and all received Holy Communion. On that day, the holy Emperor consecrated his family and the entire empire and all its people to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He had a plan to declare the Feast of the Sacred Heart as a state holiday on each First Friday of the month, which is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Blessed Karl renewed this act of consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart. Blessed Karl united a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with his love for the Holy Eucharist. These two realities were the dominant dimensions in his life of faith and devotion. The Emperor never passed a church without greeting Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament. He also taught his children, they should make a sign of the cross when they pass a church. A bishop of those times called Blessed Karl the “Eucharistic Emperor.” On his way to Swiss exile, he spoke, “Most Sacred Heart, I trust in Thee.” In the time of his exile, Blessed Karl had arranged that on First Fridays of the month, which is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, there would be celebrated in his private chapel a “missa cantata.” And the two archdukes, his sons, Otto and Robert, served mass.
The emperor had always at his desk and at his bedside an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. People said when Emperor Charles was kneeling and praying, they had the impression, “Here is really an angel.” During his exile in Switzerland, he wrote to Pope Benedict XV these words, “I do not lose courage and have particularly the confidence that the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus will not permit that the country which is consecrated to him will collapse.” In several letters to his wife, Zita, he made invitations to place unlimited trust in the heart of the Lord. In conversations with people who suffered distress, he often spoke with great conviction, “The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus will help you.” Blessed Karl had never lost his trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, even though his life and the life of a saint do not have the hallmarks of success but of the cross. He prayed daily the Holy Rosary, the three litanies daily, namely the litany of the Most Sacred Heart, the litany of Loreto, and to St. Joseph, and today, also, Psalm 90, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High.” During his last illness, he often invoked the heart of Jesus, and he entrusted his children, each individually by name, to the love of the Divine Heart. Beneath the headrest of the dying emperor was an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and he kissed it several times. The day before his death, he said, “How good it is that there is trust in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Otherwise, one could not bear all this.” One of his last words to his wife, Zita, was, “In the heart of Jesus, we will see each other again.” The very last word of Blessed Karl, the emperor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, was “Jesus.”
Blessed Karl dedicated all his life not only to the temporal welfare of his people, but ultimately to the aim of the exaltation of Jesus Christ as the only king of each human heart and as the only true king of each human society as well. If Jesus’ divine heart does not reign in the lives of Christians and in the public and social life, there will not be a lasting peace. Blessed Karl, in his title as King of Hungary, could be named as the worthiest successor of the first saint, King of Hungary, St. Stephen. The life of Blessed Karl did all honor to his title, “Apostolic King,” and to his royal crown called the “Holy Crown.” The cross on the top of the Royal Hungarian crown is in an inclined position. This symbolizes that its bearer, the king, inclines himself before the cross, the cross of Christ. Such a deeply spiritual symbolism of his royal crown, Blessed Karl realized in his life for his deepest striving consisted in honoring Christ the King and in adoring and loving the divine royal Heart of Jesus, and in helping his subjects as well venerate the divine heart. “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus.” Let therefore, no person pose upon another outside of the one that has been posed by the hand of God, in and through which is Christ Jesus. For the people as for individuals, for modern societies and for the ancient societies, for the republics, as for the monarchies, there has been no name under heaven given to man in which they can be saved, if it is not the name of Jesus Christ. Blessed Emperor Karl paused all his life only upon the foundation which is Jesus Christ and showed us a simple and sure way, and that is an ardent love for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us ask.