Archduke Rudolf Habsburg of Austria was married by
Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov at Our Lady of
Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Tuxedo Park New York on June 22, 1953. She was killed in a car wreck 15 years
later. Over 100 guests at the wedding
including Dowager Empress Zita. This was
the 2nd imperial marriage ever in the U.S. (1st was Napoleon Bonaparte
brother Jerome and American heiress Elizabeth Patterson)
Empress Zita and the Habsburg family both met then Msgr.
Fulton Sheen on November 5, 1946 at the ordination of the first-ever Coadjutor
Bishop of the Greek Catholic Exarchate of Pittsburgh (Bishop Daniel Ivancho)
and Sheen gave the homily at the ordination.
