Trudie
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 Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject: August 13th - Bl. Jakob Gapp |
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August 13th - Bl. Jakob Gapp
BL. JAKOB GAPP, the seventh child in the working class family of Martin Gapp
and Antonia Wach, was born on 26 July 1897 in Wattens, a small village in
the Austrian Tirol. On the following day he was baptized in the parish
church of St Laurence in Wattens.
After completing secondary school in his native village, he entered the
Franciscan high school in Hall, a Tirolean town, in 1910.
Jakob was called to military service in May 1915 and served on the Italian
front, where he was wounded in 1916. For this he received the silver medal
of Courage Second Class. On 4 November 1918 he was interned as a prisoner of
war in Riva del Garda and released on 18 August 1919.
Jakob entered the Marianist novitiate at Greisinghof, Upper Austria, where
he made his first vows in 1921. The young religious was assigned to the
Marian Institute in Graz, where he worked as a teacher and sacristan for
four years. At the same time he was preparing himself through private study
for the seminary. He made his profession of perpetual vows at Antony,
France, on 27 August 1925. In September 1925 Jakob entered the International
Marianist Seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland, and was ordained to the
priesthood by Bishop Marius Besson at St Nicholas Cathedral, Fribourg, on 5
April 1930.
Returning to Austria, he worked until 1938 as a teacher, director of
religious education, and chaplain in Marianist schools. During a time of
severe unemployment, Fr Gapp's great concern for the poor appeared in many
ways. He collected food and other necessities from his students, but also
refused to heat his own room in the winter to be able to give fuel to the
poor.
In this period, as National Socialism (Nazism) began to assert itself, first
in Germany and them in Austria, Fr Gapp formed a clear judgement about the
incompatibility of Nazism and the Christian faith by studying the German and
Austrian Bishops' statements and the Encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of Pope
Pius XI. In his teaching and preaching he continued this truth fearlessly.
When German troops arrived in Austria in March 1938, he was obliged to leave
Graz. After a few months at Freistadt his superiors sent him to his home
town in Tirol, since they saw in his anti-Nazi preaching a threat to the
very existence of those institutions whose elimination had already been
decided by the Nazis. In Tirol he enjoyed the last moment of peace in his
life. He had been an assistant pastor in Breitenwang-Reutte for only two
months when the Gestapo, at the end of October 1938, forbade him to teach
religion. Fr Gapp had taught the uncompromising law of love for all men and
women without reference to nationality or religion.
In a sermon on 11 December 1938 he defended Pope Pius XI against the attacks
of the Nazis, and directed the faithful of the parish to read Catholic
literature rather than Nazi propaganda. After this sermon Jakob Gapp was
advised to leave the country.
With the help of his religious superiors Fr Gapp escaped to Bordeaux,
France, where he worked at the cradle of the Society of Mary as a chaplain
and librarian. In May 1939 he went to Spain, where he served in the
Marianist communities at San Sebastian, Cadiz and Valencia. In Spain he
stood alone and misunderstood because of his rejection of Nazism.
The Gestapo, having followed him since he left Austria, took advantage of
his loneliness. Two individuals pretending to be Jews from Berlin told Fr
Gapp about their fictitious experience of flight from Nazi persecution. In
Valencia they asked him to instruct them in the Catholic faith. After
gaining his confidence, they invited him on a trip, and then abducted him
across the border into German-occupied France.
Fr Jakob Gapp was arrested on 9 November 1942 in Hendaye, France, and
brought to Berlin. On 2 July 1943, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
he was condemned to death. Any pardon and the transfer of his remains to his
relatives for simple burial were denied because Fr Gapp had "defended his
conduct on expressly religious grounds. For an explicitly religious people
Fr Gapp would be considered a martyr for the faith, and his burial could be
used by the Catholic population as an opportunity for a silent demonstration
in support of an already judged traitor of his people who was pretending to
die for his faith".
At 1:00 p.m. on 13 August 1943, Jakob Gapp was informed that his execution
would take place at 7:00 p.m. The two farewell letters he wrote after this
announcement are truly moving expressions of his faith. At 7:08 p.m. Fr Gapp
was guillotined in the Plotzensee Prison, Berlin. His remains were sent for
research to the Anatomical-Biological Institute of the University of Berlin.
Saint Quote
Let nothing trouble you, let nothing make you afraid. All things pass away.
God never changes. Patience obtains everything. God alone is enough.
-Saint Teresa of Avila
Bible Quote:
You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be
sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. St. John 16:20
<><><><>
The following is a hymn-prayer from the Precious Blood Manual of the
Sisters of the Precious Blood:
O Sacred Heart of Jesus
I place my trust in Thee
Whatever may befall me, Lord,
Though dark the hour may be.
In all my joys, in all my woes,
Though no such thing but grief I see,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus,
I place my trust in Thee.
When those I love have passed away
And I am achingly distressed,
O Sacred heart of Jesus,
I fly to Thee for rest.
In all my trials great or small,
My confidence shall be
Unshaken as I cry, dear Lord,
"I place my trust in Thee."
This is my one sweet prayer, O Lord!
My faith, my trust, my love
But most of all, in that last hour
When death incline to Thee above.
Ah, then, sweet Saviour, may Thy face
Smile on my soul set free.
Oh, may I cry with rapturous love,
"I've placed my trust in Thee." |
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