Maria Restituta Kafka

In 1919, Sister Maria Restituta was transferred to the Mödling hospital, where she became head nurse of the operating room and an anesthetist. Nicknamed "Sister Resoluta" for her direct temperament, she cared for all patients without distinction. After the 1938 Anschluss, she openly opposed the Nazi regime. The conflict erupted when she refused to remove the crucifixes she had installed in the rooms of the hospital's new wing, despite threats of dismissal from the Nazi authorities.

Accused of having distributed texts critical of the Nazi regime, Sister Maria Restituta was arrested by the Gestapo on February 18, 1942. On October 29, 1942, she was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof for complicity with the enemy and preparation for high treason. She refused to leave her congregation in exchange for her freedom. Despite requests for clemency, notably from Cardinal Innitzer, which were rejected by Martin Bormann, she was beheaded on March 30, 1943, at the Vienna prison. Her last words were: "I have lived for Christ, I want to die for Christ."

The process for her beatification opened in the Archdiocese of Vienna in 1988. On April 6, 1998, Pope John Paul II officially recognized her martyrdom in odium fidei. She was beatified by John Paul II on June 21, 1998, at the Heldenplatz in Vienna, a highly symbolic location from which Adolf Hitler had proclaimed the Anschluss sixty years earlier. She thus became the first martyr of Austria to be raised to the honors of the altars.

The spirituality of Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka rests on the mystery of the Cross and the Franciscan charism. Her legacy is honored by a bronze relief by Alfred Hrdlicka at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, a street named after her in Mödling (Schwester-Maria-Restituta-Gasse), and a square in Vienna (Maria-Restituta-Platz). Furthermore, a notable relic, her belt cross, is venerated in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island in Rome.