Fessler, Joseph

Fessler, Joseph a Roman Catholic theologian and bishop, was born December 2, 1813, at Lochau, in Vorarlberg, Austria, and studied at Brixen and Innspruck. In 1837 he received holy orders, and was promoted in 1839 as doctor of theology at Vienna. In 1841 he was made professor of Church history and of canon law at Brixen, and in 1852 was called to Vienna. In 1862 he was appointed bishop of Nyssa in partibus, and in 1865 succeeded Feigerle as bishop of St. Polten. At the Vatican council he was first secretary. He died April 25, 1872, leaving, Ueber die Provincial-Synoden und Diocesan- Synoden (Innspruck, 1849): — Institutiones Patrologiae (1850-52, 2 volumes): — Das Kirchliche Bucherverbot (Vienna, 1858): — Die Protestantzenfrage in Oesterreich (ibid. 1861): — Vermischte Schrifteni (Freiburg, 1869): — Die wahre und falsche Unfehlbarkeit der Papste (Vienna, 1871). See Erdinger, Joseph Fessler (Brixen, 1874); Zuchold, Bibl. Theol. 1:354; Literarischer Handweiser fur das Kathol. Deutschland, 1872, page 212. (B.P.)