Rupert Mayer
German Jesuit priest and leading figure of the Catholic resistance movement in Nazi Germany in Munich (1876-1945)
Feast: 3 November (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Rupert Mayer, a Jesuit alert to injustice and of bold spirit, was a military chaplain and a devoted guide of the faithful, helper of the poor and workers, and preacher in Munich. As early as the 1920s he saw the danger of the Nazi movement and preached that National Socialism and Christianity were irreconcilable.
He defied the Nazi ban on collecting money for Caritas by begging in front of St Michael's church. Arrested again on 5 January 1938, he was held at Landsberg and later confined to a monastery without contact with the faithful. He died in 1945.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Jesuit who preached from the start that Nazism and Christianity could not be reconciled.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Rupert Mayer
- Wikidata Q45283 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Rupert Mayer (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.