“every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life”
Readings – 2 Corinthians 4:16–5:4; John 6:35–40
As I prepared to preach a sermon as we mourn a long-lived monarch of deep Christian faith, the story of another royal death 106 years ago pushed its way into my mind. It is about the funeral of Emperor Franz Joseph von Habsburg, who was as deeply faithful a Christian as Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; he also sat on his throne for almost as long as she did on hers.
Franz-Joseph reigned for 68 years after assuming the throne as a result of the great Europe-wide popular uprisings of 1848, and died in the middle of the First World War. On one level his life story seems impossibly remote – even his surname invokes the medieval world; yet it was recent enough to encompass democratic elections, trade unions, worldwide telecommunications, and the sort of horrific artillery barrages we have seen recapitulated on the flats fields of Ukraine this year. Indeed, it was recent enough that it is possible to watch a few minutes of film footage from his funeral procession through the streets of Vienna on YouTube.
The procession was appropriately full of pomp and circumstance. Beautifully attired dignitaries and a detachment of elegant hussars on white steeds escorted a casket draped in the black and gold of the Habsburg family which had ruled vast territories for six hundred years.

Emperor Franz Joseph’s funeral procession through Vienna in 1916
When the procession arrived at the Imperial Crypt, a great iron door barred the way to the family mausoleum. On the other side stood the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna waiting.
The officer leading the casket stood at the door, knocked, and cried “Open!”
“Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal from behind the iron doors.
The officer replied: “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz Joseph the First, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” continuing with all the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles.
“We know him not!”, the Cardinal replied abruptly.
The officer once more knocked the vast iron door, and again the Cardinal replied – “Who goes there?”
The officer this time used a shorter title for the deceased Emperor.
The Cardinal replied again, “We know him not!”
The officer then knocked for the third time. The Cardinal replied for the third time, “Who goes there?”
This time the officer’s answer was different: “We bear the body of Franz Joseph, our brother, a sinner – like us all.”
“This man we recognise”, replied the Cardinal finally, and the huge iron doors swung open to admit the body of an Emperor.
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