Friedrich Gustav Piffl was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 and Archbishop of Vienna

Archbishop of Vienna

The Archbishop of Vienna is the prelate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna who is concurrently the metropolitan bishop of its ecclesiastical province which includes the dioceses of Eisenstadt, Linz and St. Pölten....

.

Gustav Piffl was born in Lanškroun

Lanškroun

Lanškroun , also known as Lanskron, Lanscron, Landeskrone, and Kronland, is a town and municipality in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. On the border between the former provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, it had a population of 9,911 .The town was founded in the thirteenth century as the...

, Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

 in what was then Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

. He was the son of Rudolf Piffl who was a bookseller and shopkeeper. He volunteered for a year in the Austrian army in his early life. After deciding to become a priest he entered the Teutonic College of S. Maria in Camposanto in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and later the Sankt'Augustin monastery, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.