View source for Ladislaus Pyrker

{{Short description|Hungarian Cistercian abbot, archbishop and poet}}
{{Expand Hungarian|topic=bio|Pyrker János László|date=February 2012}}
{{Expand German|topic=bio|Johann Ladislaus Pyrker|date=December 2009}}
[[Image:Johann Ladislaus Pyrker.jpg|thumb|Johann Ladislaus Pyrker, Lithograph by [[Josef Kriehuber]] 1842]]
'''Johann Ladislaus Pyrker (von Oberwart)''' ''(von Felsö-Eör)'' ({{langx|hu|'''[[Oberwart|felsőőr]]i Pyrker János László'''}}; 2 November 1772 in [[Nagyláng]], [[Soponya]], near [[Székesfehérvár]], Hungary – 2 December 1847 at [[Vienna]]) was a Hungarian [[Cistercian]] abbot, archbishop and poet.

== Life ==
He was descended from an old Hungarian noble family. His father was one of the eighteen [[hussar]]s who distinguished themselves in the [[battle of Kunersdorf]].

Graduated from [[Székesfehérvár]] and [[Pécs]], he applied for a civil service position in [[Buda]] but was unsuccessful. In 1792 he entered the Cistercian chapter house at [[Lilienfeld Abbey]], where he was ordained [[priest]] (1796). In quick succession he was steward, chancellor, [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]], [[abbot]], for a time, parish priest at [[Türnitz]], and brought the monastery to prosperity.

He was appointed [[Bishop of Spiš]] (1818), [[Patriarch of Venice]] and [[Primate of Dalmatia]] with his see in Venice (1820), and finally [[Archbishop of Eger]] (1827). He founded health resorts in [[Karlovy Vary]] and [[Gastein]] for sick soldiers, a seminary for country school teachers at [[Eger]], and donated 10,000 early [[Hungarian forint|florins]] toward the adornment of [[Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle, Eger|Eger Cathedral]]. His collection of paintings forms the basis of the [[Hungarian National Museum]]. For these charitable gifts he was knighted by the emperor with the title of Felsö-Eör. In 1827 he was founded a [[string quartet]] in Eger by his noble music instruments, one of these the 1697's [[Stradivari]]'s violin, named Cecilia, newly discovered in 2011. He was known to the composer [[Franz Schubert]] who set two songs to his texts: D851 Das Heimweh and D852 Die Allmacht. Pyrker let it be known that he liked Schubert's D489 Der Wanderer, and was duly obliged with the dedication of Schubert's Opus 4.

== Works ==
Pyrker wrote dramatic, epic, and lyric poetry. His first dramatic work, "Historische Schauspiele", appeared in 1810, and contained three five-act tragedies: "Die Corvinen", "Karl der Kleine, König von Ungarn", and "Zrinis Tod". It was not considered worthy of discussion or criticism, and the various editions of his collected works do not contain the dramas.

The "Tunisias", an epic in twelve cantos, describing the conquest of Tunis by [[Emperor Charles V]], appeared in 1820, and there have been frequent later editions. A sketch of a "Tunisias" with striking resemblances was found in the textbooks of the Jesuit [[Jacob Masen]]. It is possible that the Jesuit's textbook (''Palæstra eloquentiæ'') was used at the time of Pyrker's youth. Another epic, "Rudolphias", glorifies [[Rudolf I of Germany|Rudolph, the first King from the House of Habsburg]], and was printed in Vienna in 1824. [[Grillparzer]] dramatized the same material in his "Ottokars Glück und Ende", which has many similarities with the well-known "Ode to Habsburg" written by the Latin poet [[Nicola Avancini]], S.J., probably read in the schools at the end of the eighteenth century.

Pyrker also wrote several short stories: "Die Perlen der heiligen Vorzeit" (1821); "Bilder aus dem Leben Jesu und der Apostel" and "Legenden der Heiligen auf alle Sonntage und Festtage des Jahres" (1842). As a lyric poet Pyrker published only a few monographs, e. g. "Lilienfelds Freude", and "Lieder der Sehnsucht nach den Alpen" (1845).

== References ==
* [[Gödeke|GÖDEKE]], ''Grundriss der deutschen Dichtung''; 
* [[J. A. Moriz Brühl|BRÜHL]], ''Gesch. der Literatur Deutschlands vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart'' (1861), 340 sq.; 
* [[Wursbach|WURSBACH]], ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Qesterreich'', XXIV, 115 sq.; 
* [[Sauer (surname)|SAUER]], ''Allgemeine deutsche Biographie''; 
* [[Theodor Herold|HEROLD]], ''Friedrich August Klemens Werthes u. die deutschen Zrinydramen'' (1898); 
* [[Scheid (surname)|SCHEID]], ''Der Jesuit Masen u. P. N. Avancini'', S.J. (Cologne, 1898–9).

== External links ==
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Johann Ladislaus von Oberwart Pyrker}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=33925}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=János László Pyrker}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyrker, Ladislaus}}
[[Category:1772 births]]
[[Category:1847 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Fejér County]]
[[Category:Hungarian male poets]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic archbishops in the Austrian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century Hungarian poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Hungarian male writers]]
[[Category:Hungarian Cistercians]]
[[Category:Hungarian abbots]]
[[Category:Hungarian nobility]]
[[Category:Patriarchs of Venice]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Eger]]
[[Category:Cistercian bishops]]
[[Category:Hungarian Roman Catholic archbishops]]