Franz Xaver Riedl

Franz Xaver Riedel SJ (15 October 1738 – 30 October 1773) was an Austrian Jesuit Priest, pedagogue, author and hymn writer.

Life Riedel was born in Mautern an der Donau on 15 October 1738. He joined the Jesuits as a novice at age 16 and received a broad humanistic education. After his profession, he worked as a teacher of ancient languages and literature, poetry and architecture at Jesuit Gymnasien, first in Graz and Linz and ultimately at the Theresianum in Vienna. With abolition of the Jesuits in 1773, he moved to Güns (now in Hungary).

He died in Güns on 30 October 1773.

Work Riedel was a friend of the Jesuit scholar Michael Denis. His poetry is influenced by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Riedel authored poetic paraphrases of Latin hymns from Roman tradition, published as Lieder der Kirche aus den römischen Tagzeiten und dem Meßbuche übersetzt in 1773. Among them is the hymn "Deinem Heiland, deinem Lehrer", a paraphrase of "Lauda Sion", which is contained in many regional sections of the 2013 Catholic hymnal Gotteslob. It is frequently sung for Corpus Christi processions.