20th century
Feast: May 21
An Austrian farmer and father of three who was the only man in his village to vote against the Anschluss — and was beheaded for refusing to swear a military oath to Hitler.
Franz Jagerstatter was not an obvious candidate for moral heroism. In his youth, he was the village wild man — he fathered a child out of wedlock, got into fights, and was the first person in his village to own a motorcycle. Then he married Franziska Schwaninger, and everything changed. She was devout, and their marriage deepened his faith dramatically. They prayed together, went to daily Mass, and Franz began reading theology and the lives of the saints with an intensity his neighbors found odd. When the Anschluss came in 1938, Franz was the only person in the village of St. Radegund to vote against it. His neighbors were embarrassed. His parish priest told him to think of his family. His bishop advised him to serve. Everyone — literally everyone in his life except his wife — told him he was wrong to refuse military service. He refused anyway. 'I cannot swear an oath to a man like that,' he said of Hitler. He was arrested, tried, and beheaded in Berlin on August 9, 1943, at thirty-six. He left behind Franziska and three daughters under the age of seven. For decades, his village considered him a troublemaker and a fool. He was beatified in 2007. Franziska, who never remarried, attended the ceremony.