In the long 19th century more than five million people emigrated from the Habsburg Monarchy. Who stood by these people on their arduous journey? One of the first and most important organisations to become involved in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was the Austrian St. Raphael Association. This Catholic association named itself after the already existing institution of the emigrant welfare service in the German Reich and was part of an international network. In the most important port cities around the world, the association set up shelters and appointed men of trust to offer a wide range of help 'on the spot'. A range of social (information, advice, help with money exchange or baggage procurement), liturgical (church services, sacraments, celebration of mass on ocean liners) and pastoral care (consolation, support, confession) guaranteed holistic support and gave the women, men and children in their emigration stations a feeling of security and integration into a national community, at least in part.

Markus Holzweber, Dr. phil, Mag. theol., born 1978, studied combined religious education and history at the University of Vienna, doctorate in 2005, research assistant at the university course for information law and legal information at the University of Vienna, head of the editorial department of the magazine "Das Waldviertel".