The Word Among Us

September 2011 Issue

Traitor, Fanatic, or Saint?

The Troubling Witness of Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter

By: Dorothy Garrity Ranaghan

Traitor, Fanatic, or Saint?: The Troubling Witness of Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter by Dorothy Garrity Ranaghan

It was a warm summer night in 1938. In a tiny Austrian village, Franz Jaegerstaetter startled awake, terrified by a vivid dream. In it he saw a “shining train circling a mountain” and men, women, and children rushing to get a place on it. Then, suddenly, he heard a voice that warned: “This train is going to hell.”

Franz’s terror over the dream never faded, and as he pondered its meaning, he came to see the train as symbolizing Nazism. How he...

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