The archbishop of Vienna, accompanied by other Austrian prelates on their five-yearly visit to Rome, presided at a prayer meeting today in St. Bartholomew’s Basilica on Tiberina Island, dedicated to 20th-century witnesses of the faith.
During the ceremony, organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio, one of Jägerstätter’s manuscripts, written in a prison near Berlin before his execution, was presented.
The test will remain in the basilica as a testimony of his witness.
Jägerstätter wrote: «I am writing with bound hands; but it is better than if my will had been enchained. Sometimes God reveals his strength openly to us; strength he grants to those who love him and do not put earth before heaven.
«Not prison, not chains, not even death can part a man from the love of God, or rob him of his free will. The power of God is invincible.»
Jägerstätter, a Catholic husband and father of three, was decapitated on Aug. 9, 1943.
