St. Franz Jägerstätter

Franz Jägerstätter was born on May 20, 1907, in St. Radegund, a small village in Upper Austria near the German border. He was the illegitimate son of a farmer's servant, and his early life was marked by hardship and a certain restlessness. As a young man, he worked as a miner and lived for a time in various parts of Austria, including a period in the city of St. Pölten, where he had a daughter out of wedlock. He also spent time in ecclesiastical circles, briefly considering priesthood before returning to his rural roots. In 1914, his mother married a farmer, and Franz was later adopted by his stepfather, taking the Jägerstätter name.

Around 1930, Jägerstätter experienced a deepening religious conversion that transformed his life. He began serving as a sacristan in his local parish and became increasingly involved with Catholic movements, including the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Catholic Action, which fostered lay engagement with Church teaching. His religious commitments grew so strong that in 1934 he made a private vow to accept every cross God sent him and to be unconditionally devoted to the Sacred Heart. He married Franziska Schwaninger in 1936, and the couple had three daughters. Though he remained a farmer, his faith shaped his daily life, including his political stance.

The Anschluss of 1938, when Nazi Germany absorbed Austria, posed a direct challenge to Jägerstätter's beliefs. He was the only one in St. Radegund to vote against the unification in the plebiscite that followed. He openly opposed Nazism from the beginning, refusing to participate in organizations like the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls, and declining a position on the local council. In 1940, he was briefly called up for military service and completed basic training in the German Wehrmacht, but was soon discharged as an essential agricultural worker. During this time he studied the Church's traditional just war teaching, particularly the writings of Pope Pius XI, and came to the conviction that he could not in good conscience serve the Nazi regime in a war he viewed as fundamentally unjust.

In February 1943, Jägerstätter was recalled to active duty. He refused to take the oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler and openly declared his unwillingness to fight for the Nazi cause. As a result, he was arrested and detained in various facilities before being tried by a military court. He was found guilty of undermining military morale and sentenced to death. On August 9, 1943, he was executed by guillotine at Brandenburg-Görden Prison in Germany. His ashes were returned to St. Radegund and interred in the parish cemetery.

Jägerstätter's story might have faded into obscurity had it not been for Gordon Zahn, an American sociologist who learned of him through Franziska and wrote the influential book 'In Solitary Witness' (1964). The work brought Jägerstätter's witness to an international audience and inspired the 2017 film 'A Hidden Life' by Terrence Malick. His cause for canonization was opened in the Diocese of Linz, and on October 26, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared him a martyr, recognizing that he was killed out of hatred for the faith. He was beatified on October 27, 2007, at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Linz, in a ceremony attended by Franziska, who had campaigned for decades for her husband's recognition. His feast day is celebrated on May 21.