Engelmar Unzeitig

On April 30, 1934, Hubert Unzeitig began his novitiate with the Missionaries of Mariannhill at Saint-Paul in Arcen, the Netherlands. It was on this occasion that he received the religious habit and took the name Engelmar. He pronounced his first vows on May 1, 1935. He was then sent to Würzburg, in Bavaria, to continue his studies in philosophy and theology at the Saint Pius X seminary. After making his solemn profession in May 1938, he was ordained a priest on August 6, 1939, just a few weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. He celebrated his first mass on August 15, 1939, on the feast of the Assumption, in his native village. Father Engelmar began his priestly ministry in Riedegg, Upper Austria, where he notably provided spiritual support to French prisoners of war. In October 1940, at the request of the Bishop of Linz, he was appointed parish priest of Glöckelberg (today Zadní Zvonková, in the Czech Republic), a village in the Bohemian Forest. In this poor and isolated parish, he distinguished himself by his charity and his fidelity to monastic poverty. Faced with the rise of National Socialist ideology and state persecution, Father Engelmar refused to remain silent. In his sermons and during religious instruction for children, he openly denounced the lies of the Nazi regime and publicly defended the persecuted Jews, urging his parishioners to remain faithful to God rather than to the State.

His courageous and prophetic stances quickly drew the attention of the occupying authorities. On April 21, 1941, one week after Easter, Father Engelmar was arrested by the Gestapo on charges of "insidious statements" and "defending the Jews." After six weeks of preventive detention at the Linz police prison, he was deported without trial on June 8, 1941, to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was interned in the "priests' block" (Pfarrerblock). In the hell of Dachau, Father Engelmar became a beacon of brotherly charity and hope. Nicknamed by his fellow prisoners the "Angel of Dachau" or the "Maximilian Kolbe of the Germans," he strove to alleviate the suffering of all, regardless of nationality or confession. He generously shared the food parcels he received with those who were starving. Driven by a deep missionary spirit, he secretly learned the Russian language in order to support and evangelize the prisoners from Eastern Europe and the Soviet soldiers. At the end of 1944, a terrible epidemic of typhus broke out in the camp. The contaminated barracks were quarantined, and the sick were abandoned there in appalling conditions of hygiene and distress. Faced with this tragedy, the camp administration called for volunteers among the clergy to care for the sick. Father Engelmar was one of twenty Catholic priests (ten Germans and ten Poles) to volunteer. Aware of the mortal risk, he devoted himself day and night to the dying, providing them with material care and administering the last sacraments. He eventually contracted the disease himself and passed away on March 2, 1945, the day after his 34th birthday.

After his death, his fellow prisoners immediately testified to his heroic holiness. His ashes were clandestinely removed from the Dachau camp and buried on April 30, 1945, in the municipal cemetery of Würzburg. In 1968, his remains were transferred to the Church of the Sacred Heart (Herz-Jesu-Kirche) of the Mariannhill Missionaries in Würzburg, the very sanctuary where he had been ordained a priest. The cause for beatification was officially opened on July 26, 1991, in the Diocese of Würzburg. On June 17, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, declaring him venerable. On January 22, 2016, Pope Francis promulgated the decree recognizing his martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith), thus exempting the cause from the requirement of a miracle. The beatification ceremony was celebrated on September 24, 2016, in the Würzburg Cathedral (Kiliansdom). It was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Francis. The following day, September 25, 2016, the urn containing his ashes was solemnly placed in the altar of celebration of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Würzburg.

The spirituality of Blessed Engelmar Unzeitig is deeply rooted in the motto of the Missionaries of Mariannhill: "If no one will go, I will." His voluntary sacrifice in the service of typhus patients embodies this missionary availability and supreme pastoral charity to the very end. His letters sent from Dachau to his sister Regina testify to an unwavering faith and a total abandonment to divine grace in the midst of the concentration camp hell. In them, he expresses his conviction that the love of God surpasses all suffering and inwardly liberates the human being. Today, Blessed Engelmar is venerated as a model of spiritual resistance against totalitarianism and a patron for caregivers and those facing epidemics. Relics of his body were placed in December 2017 under the new altar of the Cathedral of St. Mary in Linz (Mariendom). His liturgical feast is set for March 2, the day of his birth into Heaven.