Sister Alix of the Silent Workers of the Cross (Archduchess Marie Adelheid; 1933-2021)

Sister Alix.

Photo (c) Corriere della Sera (Brescia).

At 6:30am on Sunday, 10 October, Sister Alix of the Silent Workers of the Cross died at Poliambulanza after a serious illness. Sister Alix was eighty-eight years old.

Born on 28 July 1933 at Schloß Persenbeug, Archduchess Marie Adelheid Theodora Antonia Bartholomea Leopolda Amalia Mathilde Markus d'Aviano Huberta Josepha Ignatia of Austria was the fourth daughter and fifth child of Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria (1894-1971) and his wife Princess Rosemary zu Salm-Salm (1904-2001), who married in 1926. Marie Adelheid had twelve siblings: Archduke Friedrich (1927-1999; married Countess Margarete Kálnoky von Köröspatak), Archduchess Agnes (1928-2007; married Prince Karl Alfred of Liechtenstein), Archduchess Maria Margaretha (b.1930), Archduchess Maria Ludovika (1931-1999), Archduchess Elisabeth (1935-1998; married Prince Heinrich von Auersperg), Archduke Andreas Salvator (b.1936; married and divorced Maria Espinosa de los Monteros y Rosillo; married Countess Valerie Podstatzky-Lichtenstein), Archduchess Josepha (b.1937; married Count Clemens von Waldstein), Archduchess Valerie (b.1941; married Margrave Max of Baden), Archduchess Maria Alberta (b.1944; married Baron Alexander von Kottwitz-Erdödy), Archduke Markus (b.1946; married Hildegard Jungmayr), Archduke Johann (b.1947; married Annemarie Stummer), and Archduke Michael (b.1949; married Eva-Antonia von Hofmann). Marie Adelheid had a particular fondness for her three youngest brothers. In 1963, the archduchess became Sister Alix after she joined the Silent Workers of the Cross (Silenziosi Operai della Croce) following a meeting in Rome with its founder, the Blessed Father Luigi Novarese.

Sister Nora, the Head of the Silent Workers of the Cross, remembered Sister Alix: "Always smiling, active, energetic, in all circumstances of life. Her attention to the sick consisted above all in being close to them to instill serenity. Lover of nature and gardening. Many of us remember the works in the park of the Montichiari Castle."

May Sister Alix Rest in Peace.

Source:

Addio a sorella Alix, pronipote dell’imperatore Francesco Giuseppe