Home › Fathers, Saints & Teachers › Franz Jägerstätter
✓ Reviewed by Fr. John How this site is made
At a glance
| Who | Franz Jägerstätter (1907–1943), born Franz Huber in St. Radegund, Upper Austria; farmer, husband of Franziska, father of three daughters, sacristan of his parish and a member of the Third Order of St. Francis; executed by the Nazi regime on August 9, 1943 |
|---|
| Standing | Blessed; martyr declared a martyr in 2007 and beatified in Linz Cathedral on October 26, 2007, with Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presiding on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Feast: May 21, the day of his baptism. |
|---|
| The writings | His letters and notes, written chiefly between 1938 and 1943, many from prison, including his account of a dream of a train (1938). Published in English as Franz Jägerstätter: Letters and Writings from Prison, ed. Erna Putz (Orbis Books, 2009) |
|---|
| Weight | A martyr's witness, not a teaching of the Magisterium. The Church beatified him for dying for the faith; it has not examined his dream, which remains a private experience (CCC 67). His English texts are under copyright, so they are summarized here, with only a few short phrases quoted. |
|---|
His life
Franz was born on May 20, 1907, in the village of St. Radegund, near the Bavarian border. As a young man he was known for his high spirits more than his piety. In his late twenties his faith deepened. On April 9, 1936, he married Franziska Schwaninger, a devout young woman from a neighboring village, and the couple spent their honeymoon on pilgrimage in Rome. Three daughters were born to them: Rosalia, Maria and Aloisia. He served as sacristan of his parish church, and in December 1940 he joined the Third Order of St. Francis.
When Hitler annexed Austria, the regime held a plebiscite on April 10, 1938. Franz was the only person in his village to vote against it. He came to judge that National Socialism and the Catholic faith could not be reconciled, and that the war Germany was waging was unjust. Called up for service in February 1943, he reported to the barracks at Enns on March 1 and on March 2 declared that he would not fight. He was held in prison in Linz and then in Berlin-Tegel.
Priests he consulted, and his bishop, urged him to give way, reminding him of his duty to his wife and children. Franziska stood by his conscience. On July 6, 1943, a military court in Berlin sentenced him to death. On the night before his execution a priest brought him a document that would have saved his life if he signed it. He refused. He was beheaded at Brandenburg an der Havel on August 9, 1943, aged thirty-six.
Why Franz Jägerstätter matters here
The Book of Revelation was written for Christians who were being pressed to give a ruler the honor that belongs to God. The beast demands worship, and those who refuse are shut out of buying and selling, or killed (Revelation 13:15–17). Against it the book sets the faithful, who conquer “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). Franz Jägerstätter did not read Revelation as a code for his times. He did something harder: he refused, and he bore witness.
He belongs on this site beside St. Edith Stein, who died at Auschwitz a year before him. Neither claimed to know when the end would come. Both read the signs of their own time with open eyes, and both kept faith with the Lamb to the end.
His witness
The dream of the train · 1938Private experienceUnfolding
“This train is going to hell.”
- The dream (paraphrase)
- In 1938, the year of the annexation, Franz dreamed of a beautiful, shining train coming around a mountain. Crowds of people, children among them, streamed toward it and could hardly be held back; a few adults stayed off. Then he heard a voice say the words quoted above.
- His reading
- He came to understand the train as National Socialism, with all its organizations and the national community it demanded people join, and he urged others to jump off before it reached its destination, even at the cost of their lives. He wrote that God had shown him, through this “dream, or revelation,” the answer to whether he could be both a National Socialist and a Catholic.
- How to hold it
- This was a private experience, and the Church has made no judgment on it. Like every private revelation, it adds nothing to the faith (CCC 67). What the Church has honored is not the dream but the life and death that followed.
- Why “Unfolding”
- Every age has its shining trains: movements that promise everything and ask for the soul in return. The warning holds wherever a power asks for what belongs to God alone.
God and Caesar · His letters and notes, 1938–1943LettersUnfolding
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew 22:21)
- His conviction (paraphrase)
- Franz was no rebel by temperament. He paid his taxes, worked his farm and served his parish. But he did not believe that Christ ever told us to obey rulers when they command what is wicked, and he could not accept that Catholics should become tools of what he called an anti-Christian power. A Christian owes Caesar much; he does not owe him his conscience.
- The test he faced
- Many around him argued that the oath was a formality, that responsibility lay with those in power, and that a father's first duty was to his family. He took those arguments seriously and answered them in his notes. In the end he judged that he could not swear allegiance to a regime he believed was fighting an unjust war in the service of an evil cause.
- Why “Unfolding”
- The line between Caesar and God is drawn again in every generation. The Church teaches that the final trial will come as a religious deception that offers an apparent solution “at the price of apostasy from the truth” (CCC 675). Franz shows how an ordinary Christian recognizes such a price and refuses to pay it.
Faithful until death · Brandenburg, August 9, 1943MartyrdomFulfilled
“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)
- His last hours
- Offered a way to save his life by signing, he refused, saying he could not take an oath in favor of a government fighting an unjust war. To the priest who stayed with him he spoke of being completely united inwardly with the Lord. In his last letter to Franziska he asked her forgiveness for every hurt he had caused her, and told her that he had forgiven everything.
- The Church's judgment
- In 2007 the Church declared that he died for the faith and beatified him. His feast is kept on May 21. Franziska, who had stood by him, lived to see it.
- Why “Fulfilled”
- Christ's promise to the church of Smyrna, which faced prison and death, was kept for him: the crown is given to those who are faithful to the end.
Franz Jägerstätter and the Book of Revelation
- Worship belongs to God alone. The beast is given authority and the world worships it (Revelation 13:4, 8). The faithful refuse, at whatever cost. See Revelation 13.
- Victory by testimony. “They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death” (Revelation 12:11).
- Faithful until death. The promise to Smyrna, “Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10), is the promise the Church saw kept in him.
- The endurance of the holy ones. “Here is what sustains the holy ones who keep God's commandments and their faith in Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
Read with careBlessed Franz made no prophecy about the end of the world and set no date. His dream was a private experience that the Church has never examined; it is given here as part of his story, not as revelation for all. Being beatified means the Church honors his martyrdom and holiness, not that every judgment in his letters is doctrine. His writings in English belong to Orbis Books; read them whole in Letters and Writings from Prison.
For reflection
What would I refuse?
Franz's neighbors, priests and even his bishop gave him reasons to sign. He weighed them and stayed faithful. Is there anything I would refuse to say or do, whatever it cost me, because it belongs to God alone?
Sources
- Franz Jägerstätter, Letters and Writings from Prison, ed. Erna Putz, trans. Robert Anthony Krieg (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009), ISBN 978-1-57075-826-3
- Vatican Radio, “Jägerstätter beatified in Austria,” October 26, 2007, archivioradiovaticana.va
- National Catholic Reporter, cover story on Franz Jägerstätter's beatification, November 9, 2007, natcath.org
- The National WWII Museum, “The Story of Austrian Catholic Resister Franz Jägerstätter,” nationalww2museum.org
- Anna Brown, review of Letters and Writings from Prison, The Common Good 51 (Advent 2009), catholicworker.org.nz
- Revelation 2; 12; 13; 14 (NABRE), bible.usccb.org
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 67, 675
Continue