Liborius Wagner (5 December 1593 – 9 December 1631) was a German Roman Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

. He administered throughout his pastoral mission in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the '' Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzbur ...

and was killed "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith). He performed a wide range of charitable acts and he was more than willing to - at the time of his death - shed his blood for his beliefs and for his fellow Christians. In recognition of his murder

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

beatified him on 24 March 1974.

Life

Liborius Wagner was born on 5 December 1593 to

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

parents. He served as a scholar who grew up in a Protestant household during the Counter-Reformation period. His decision was - in 1613 - to learn Counter-Reformation theological matters in

and this was a decision that his parents disapproved of. He was firm in his faith as a Christian - he had converted during this time and earned the ire of his parents - and continued his studies for the priesthood. He became a teacher in 1617 and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

as a

on 29 March 1625. He became the pastor to an area split between Protestants and Catholics. He attempted to reconcile both as best as he could but the divisions ran far too deep for him to do this. Wagner was driven from his parish to another town during a time of conflict in Central Europe. Protestant soldiers apprehended him in a schoolhouse and tortured him for almost a week. He refused to renounce his faith and killed him on 9 December 1631. He was shot and his corpse stripped and left into a river; his corpse was recovered sometime later. He was buried and then exhumed and later transferred for the final time on 15 December 1637.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced on 19 November 1970 despite the fact that a diocesan process had opened prior to this. The second opened sometime later and both were ratified to ensure the two processes were valid and could be taken to

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 ...

for further evaluation. This granted him the posthumous title Servant of God. On 18 October 1973 he was recognized as one who died in hatred of the faith and it allowed for

to celebrate his beatification on 24 March 1974. The pope hailed Wagner for his "testament to faith".

References

External links

Hagiography Circle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Liborius 1593 births 1631 deaths 17th-century venerated Christians 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 17th-century German Roman Catholic priests German beatified people Executed German people Martyred Roman Catholic priests Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism 17th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire