János Scheffler
János Scheffler was born on October 29, 1887, in Kálmánd (now in Romania) and was ordained a priest on July 6, 1910. As an alumnus of our college, he studied in Rome and obtained a doctorate in canon law. On March 26, 1942, Pope Pius XII appointed him Bishop of Satu Mare.
On May 23, 1950, János Scheffler was arrested by the communist regime and placed under house arrest in a Franciscan monastery. On March 10, 1952, he was transferred to Jilava prison near Bucharest, where he was tortured. He died on December 6, 1952, and was buried anonymously.
On July 3, 2011, he was beatified in the main square of Satu Mare on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. During the Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict XVI commemorated Blessed János Scheffler:
“May his witness always sustain the faith of all those who cherish his memory with affection, as well as that of new generations.”
Feast day: May 17
Karl of Austria
Karl of the House of Austria was born in 1887 at Persenbeug Castle in Lower Austria. Together with his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma and their children, he led an exemplary family life, marked by deep devotion to the Holy Eucharist and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
During the First World War, he became Emperor of Austria in 1916 and was crowned King of Hungary. He worked for a just and lasting peace and promoted justice and righteousness. After the collapse of the monarchy, he was exiled in 1919, lived in poverty, and endured his illness with deep trust in God. He died on April 1, 1922, in Funchal on the island of Madeira.
At his beatification on October 3, 2004, in Rome, Pope John Paul II said:
“He was a man of peace. In his eyes, war was something terrible. Coming to power amid the storms of the First World War, he sought to take up the peace initiative of my predecessor Benedict XV. From the beginning, Emperor Karl understood his office as a sacred service to his peoples. His earnest desire was to follow the Christian vocation to holiness also in his political actions. The idea of social charity was central to him. May he be a model for all of us, especially for those who today bear political responsibility in Europe!”
Carl Lampert
Carl Lampert was born on January 9, 1894, in Göfis, in the region of Vorarlberg. He was ordained a priest in Brixen in 1918. From 1930, he studied canon law in Rome and lived at the Pontifical College of Santa Maria dell’Anima. In 1935, he became head of the ecclesiastical court in Innsbruck. In 1939, he was appointed provicar of the Apostolic Administration and thus representative of the Bishop of Innsbruck-Feldkirch.
The Nazi regime identified Lampert as the “most dangerous man within the clergy.” Through a Gestapo informant, he was implicated in a supposed “espionage affair” and arrested in February 1943 together with members of the “Stettin Priests’ Circle.” On November 13, 1944, Carl Lampert was executed by beheading in Halle an der Saale.
The beatification process was initiated in 1998. On November 13, 2011, the 67th anniversary of his death, he was beatified in the parish church of St. Martin in Dornbirn.
Feast day: November 13
