BL. GERHARD HIRSCHFELDER, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 1 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 1st of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. GERHARD HIRSCHFELDER, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder was born in 1907 in Glatz, Silesia. Blessed Gerhard was ordained priest in 1932. His path to ordination was strewn with difficulties because Blessed Gerhard was an illegitimate child and, according to the rules of the day, needed special authorisation to study theology and a dispensation for Holy Orders.

A DEDICATED AND EFFECTIVE MINISTER

Despite difficult beginnings, the young priest showed himself a dedicated and effective minister to youth. Realising the horrors of Nazi propaganda, he tried to protect young people from this ideology. In his homilies, Blessed Gerhard denounced the violence that was taking place and the excesses of the Nazis. The Gestapo reacted to the opposition of this priest by arresting him during one of his meetings with young people. 

VERY HUMBLE

He was taken to Glatz prison for four months, during which Blessed Gerhard wrote an impressive Way of the Cross and other Catholic works. On 15th December 1941 Blessed Gerhard was taken to Dachau concentration camp. A priest who was also a prisoner in this camp described Blessed Gerhard as leaving “a very humble impression, almost timid”, adding that he “practised a noble discretion and at the same time was always ready to do a favour to others”. Blessed Gerhard died of hunger in Dachau on August 1, 1942.

FOR HUMAN DIGNITY

Pope Benedict XVI said that Blessed Gerhard’s beatification will be followed by other priests who were martyred by the Nazi regime. The Pope said that “in contemplating these martyrs it appears ever more clearly and as an example that on the basis of their Christian conviction some people are prepared to give their life for their faith, for the right to practise what they believe freely, for freedom of speech, for peace and for human dignity. 

(From: Spiritual Thought From Father Chris)