Catholic Church in Austria

Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled Primus Germaniae (Primate of Germany).

The Holy See is represented in Austria by the Apostolic Nunciature to Austria.

History

Christianity arrived in Austria through Roman interaction with the region. The first documented evidence of Christianity in Austria dates back to around the year 174. This was the location of the dioceses of Teurnia and Virunum (near the ancient capitals of the province of Noricum, Teurnia and Virunum in Carinthia) and Lauriacum (Lorch in Upper Austria, near the new capital Ovilava/Wels), as well as Aguntum. Amid the turmoil of the Migration Period, Christian institutions were largely lost, but the practice of the Christian faith was not. This is evidenced, for example, by the work of the martyr Florian of Lorch (d. 304) and the missionary Severin of Noricum (d. 482).

A further Christianization took place in the Middle Ages, primarily through the missionaries Rupert and Virgil—who found strong Christian communities still thriving in the Salzburg area and in Lorch—and through the dioceses of Passau and Salzburg, founded by Boniface in 739. Passau carried out its missionary work downstream along the Danube, while Salzburg focused on the Alpine region. Numerous monasteries were established: Mondsee (748), Innichen (769), Kremsmünster (777), and St. Florian (around 800). These structures could not be consolidated until after Charlemagne’s campaign against the Avars around 800 and the Battle of Lechfeld in 955; thus, the Freising estate of Ostarrichi (an imperial grant in 996) became the nucleus of present-day Austria.