Brıdget Carter
“Neither prison, nor chains, nor sentence of death, can separate me from the love of God.” - Franz Jagerstatter
Franz Jagerstatter, born in Upper Austria in 1907, was raised by his grandmother and spent much of his childhood living in poverty. From 1927 to 1930, Jägerstätter worked in the iron ore industry during which he began to question his faith and the meaning of life. In 1930, he returned to his home village with a deepened belief in God. In 1938 when the Nazi’s took over power, he refused to cooperate with them as he viewed Christianity and Nazism as being completely irreconcilable. To further reinforce this idea, he had a dream that he saw a train carrying innumerable people to perdition. He felt the meaning was “unveiled” to him as representing the Nazi Party with all its attached organizations. In 1940, Jägerstätter was conscripted to perform military service, but was twice brought home by the authorities on the grounds of his “reserved civilian occupation” as a farmer. He did not wish to obey a third conscription order, for he regarded fighting and killing on behalf of Hitler as a grave sin. After being conscripted once more in 1943, he reported to his regular military company, but refused to perform military service with a weapon. He felt he could not be both a Nazi and a Catholic. However, he was willing to serve as a military paramedic, but this proposal was denied. On July 6, 1943, Jägerstätter was condemned to death for undermining military morale. “God gives so much strength to those who love Him and who do not give priority to the world rather than to eternity,” he stated after his sentence. “Neither prison, nor chains, nor sentence of death, can separate me from the love of God.” Over five decades after his execution, the verdict of death on Jägerstätter was annulled by the District Court of Berlin, and on June 1, 2007, the Vatican officially confirmed his martyrdom. His beatification took place in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Linz on October 26, 2007.