Charles and Zita of Habsburg entrusted their marriage to Mary

"Now we have to help each other get to Heaven." These are the words pronounced by Archduke Charles of Habsburg to Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma on the day before their wedding. They both took this pledge seriously. Through war and exile and the tragic turn that their life took, it guided their commitment to each other. Charles’ beatification and the current case for the beatification of Zita prove that they kept their promise beautifully.

On October 21, 1911, Charles and Zita were married at Schwarzau Castle, Austria. In their wedding picture, 24-year-old Charles stands proud and smiling next to his 19-year-old bride, looking frail in her satin dress.

It was this wedding date of October 21st, and not, as tradition dictates, the date of his death, that Saint John Paul II chose for the liturgical memorial of Blessed Charles of Austria in 2004.

The day after their wedding, Charles and Zita went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Mariazell, near the Austrian Styrian Alps, to consecrate their union to the Virgin Mary. A year later their first son, Otto, was born. He would be followed by seven more children. Their first years of marriage were happy and carefree, but everything changed on June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, was murdered in Sarajevo. This was the triggering event of World War I. Charles was then promoted General of the Austrian Army.

On November 21, 1916, Emperor Franz Joseph died at the age of 86. Charles and Zita were crowned in Budapest on December 30th of the same year.

Aleteia