Josef Mayr-Nusser

The Vatican record

• 8 July 2016 — Martyrdom recognised (decree list, 2016)

Who they were

Josef Mayr-Nusser was born on 27 December 1910 at the Nusserhof farm near Bolzano and worked as a bookkeeper, educating himself. He led the young men of Catholic Action in the German-speaking part of the archdiocese of Trent and from 1937 the St Vincent de Paul conference. On 26 May 1942 he married Hildegard Straub; their son Albert was born a year later.

Faithful to the Gospel, he refused to swear allegiance to Nazism. He died of privation in a cattle truck at Erlangen on 24 February 1945, his last act of charity to pass his food to prisoners hungrier than himself.

The miracles

As a martyr, beatified without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

A husband and father who would not swear to Hitler and gave away his last food.

Connected on this site

• Vincent de Paul Saint
  “Josef Mayr-Nusser (27 December 1910 – 24 February 1945) was an Italian Roman Catholic who served as the president of the Saint Vincent de Paul Conference of the Bolzano division as well as a member of Catholic Action.” — Wikipedia