Joseph Kugler, OH (15 January 1867 - 10 June 1946) was a

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professed religious of the

Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (abbreviated as O.H.), are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenef ...

. Kugler entered the congregation in 1893 and assumed his religious name ''Eustachius'' upon admittance into ¢ novitiate. Kugler came into direct contact with the

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during

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and came to their attention due to being an outspoken critic of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime. He also opposed their approval of euthanasia of the ill and old and their anti-Christian policies. The rite of beatification for the late religious was celebrated in the

Regensburg Cathedral Regensburg Cathedral (german: Dom St. Peter or Regensburger Dom), also known as St. Peter's Cathedral, is an example of important Gothic architecture within the German state of Bavaria. It is a landmark for the city of Regensburg, Germany, and ...

on 4 October 2009 with Archbishop

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, S.D.B. (born 8 June 1938) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 2018. He served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of ...

presiding over the beatification on the behalf of

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

Life

Joseph Kugler was born on 15 January 1867 in the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

as the son of a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

. He had at least one sister and one brother. His father died in 1874 and his mother died sometime in the 1880s. In 1880 he began to work as an apprentice locksmith. However he became injured in an accident and was forced to stop working following an accident where he fell from a scaffold and injured his leg - the issues with his leg transcended to his foot and remained with him throughout his life resulting in a slight limp. In 1884 he returned home and moved in with his sister who was married to a blacksmith and he later began working once again but this time with his brother. Kugler joined the

- on 11 January 1893 - but faced initial resistance in entering due to the injuries he had sustained in the past which were believed would impede his admission. The provincial later relented and allowed for Kugler to commence his time in the novitiate; Kugler assumed the religious name of "Eustachius" in 1893. He made his profession in 1898. He made a particular focal point of his life as a religious to aid handicapped and disabled people and his appointment as the provincial of the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n section of the congregation - from 1905 until 1925 - allowed him to care for more people since he managed fifteen hospitals the order managed. He even constructed a hospital - from 1927 until 1930 - that the order ran as part of his pastoral mission. During

he opposed

and the

regime and was quite vocal in his criticism and denunciation of the latter's policies regarding euthanasia of both the old and the sick. This bought him into unwanted contact with the

who interrogated Kugler several times due to this opposition. Kugler died in Regensburg due to

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on 10 June 1946.

Beatification

The beatification process opened in Regensburg in an informative process that commenced on 1 March 1963 and concluded its business on 14 May 1965. On 1 March 1963 he was declared a Servant of God under

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

after his cause received official approval from the Congregation of Rites. Theologians also took charge of his writings and on 1 April 1969 declared them to be of orthodox nature. A second process was opened on 4 March 1982 and concluded on 12 June 1984. The

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pass ...

validated the process in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 10 April 1992. The C.C.S. received the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

dossier in 1992 and theologians approved the cause on 8 June 2004 while the C.C.S. themselves approved the cause on 1 February 2005.

proclaimed him to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

on 19 December 2005 after recognizing his

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

. The process for investigating a miracle needed for his beatification spanned from 22 January 2004 until its closure on 23 July 2004. The C.C.S. validated it on 13 May 2005 while a medical board voiced approval to the miracle on 14 June 2007. Theologians approved it on 30 October 2007 and the C.C.S. did so as well on 2 December 2008 before taking it to the pope for his approval. The pontiff approved the miracle on 19 January 2009. The beatification was celebrated in the

on 4 October 2009. Benedict XVI delegated Archbishop

to preside over the celebration on his behalf. The postulator for the cause is Elia Tripaldi.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleEustachius Kugler
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kugler, Joseph 1867 births 1946 deaths 19th-century venerated Christians 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God Order Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era Deaths from cancer in Germany 19th-century German Roman Catholic priests German beatified people People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Venerated Catholics by Pope Benedict XVI