Eduard Habsburg, Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican, Visits the Heart of Archduke Otto in Hungary

Archduke Eduard praying in front of the heart of Archduke Otto
Photograph (c) Eduard Habsburg

Archduke Eduard of Austria recently paid his respects to his late cousin, Archduke Otto (1912-2011). Eduard visited the crypt of the Abbey of Pannonhalma in Hungary, where Otto's heart is interred. According to Eduard, Otto made the choice for the urn holding his heart to be buried separately from his body because Otto considered that the Benedictine fathers from the Abbey of Pannonhalma had shaped his heart in the Roman Catholic faith when Otto was a child.

The resting place of the heart of Archduke Otto
Photograph (c) Eduard Habsburg

The Latin phrase "Cor mundum crea in me, Deus" is carved into the marble above Archduke Otto's heart. In English, the words are "O God, create in me a clean heart." The body of the archduke was buried at the Kapuzinergruft in Vienna.

The burial place of Crown Princess Stéphanie of Austria-Hungary
Photograph (c) Eduard Habsburg

Archduke Otto is not the only Habsburg to rest in repose at the Abbey of Pannonhalma. Crown Princess Stéphanie of Austria-Hungary, Princess of Belgium, was buried there after her death. The princess was the daughter of King Léopold II of Belgium and Queen Marie-Henriette (born Archduchess of Austria).

Since 2015, Archduke Eduard of Austria is the Ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta. Eduard (born 1967) is the son of Archduke Michael of Austria (born 1942) and Princess Christiana of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (born 1940). Archduke Eduard recently celebrated his silver wedding anniversary with his wife Archduchess Maria Theresia (née von Gudenus). Eduard and Maria Theresia have six children; they live in Rome.