Martyr who refused to remove crucifixes from hospital to be honored Oct. 29

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CNA STAFF, Oct 25, 2009 / 03:47 pm (CNA).- On Thursday, Catholics will celebrate the feast day of Helen Kafka, better known as Blessed Maria Restituta. Working as a nurse in the 1940s, she was ordered by the Gestapo to remove crucifixes she had placed in several hospital rooms and was sentenced to death. Pope John Paul II beatified her on June 21, 1998.

Helen Kafka was born in 1894 to a shoemaker and grew up in Vienna, Austria. At the age of 20, she decided to join the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity and took the name Restituta after an early Church martyr.

In 1919, she began working as a surgical nurse in Austria. When the Germans took over the country, she became a local opponent of the Nazi regime. Her conflict with them escalated after they ordered her to remove all the crucifixes she had hung up in each room of a new hospital wing.

Sister Maria Restitua refused and she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. She was sentenced to death for "aiding and abetting the enemy in the betrayal of the fatherland and for plotting high treason.”

She spent the rest of her days in prison caring for other prisoners, who loved her. The Nazis offered her freedom if she would abandon the Franciscan sisters, but she refused.

She was beheaded March 30, 1943 in Vienna.

Comments: 10

Subscriber comments:

Published by: DLL
scituate Mass 10/27/2009 04:35 PM EST

The Crucifix is the only Sacramental that one can gaze upon that encourages an individual to live a God-Centered Life. It should ,in Truth,be displayed everywhere!

Published by: Stephen Jones
Covington Kentucky, U.S.A. 10/26/2009 05:05 PM EST

Maria Restituta gives me hope for a better future for proclaiming loudly and clearly her love of Christ crucified to the point of giving her life for that very same Christ who gave his life even though he was God, on that cross that Maria was asked to remove from those hospital rooms. That very same Christ that was crucified on that cross over 2000 years ago will very soon in the near future will come again in all his glory and splender. Maria Restituta pray for all of us that we may be invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. It promises to be the greatest party and feast that this world ever had.

Published by: bob
oklahoma 10/26/2009 02:15 PM EST

wow, sounds like history repeats doesn't it? crosses being ordered down everywhere thse days. The Church is achieving wonderful success in many areas, but I suspect a building force out there we must brace for...seems a growing surge of atheistic "evangicalism" and anti-Catholic rhetoric is developing under the guise of female and gay and other "rights" theories. Pray for us Maria Restituta.

Published by: Rory Flick
California 10/26/2009 01:47 PM EST

When are people going to educate themselves and read history. They would realize that the government here is doing the same thing now. Everything Christian is offenseve to them. Everything this country was founded on is offenseve to them. You no longer have privacy. You no longer have freedom of religion and free exercise there of. You no longer have freedom of expression. You no longer have freedom of speech. Speak out against the wrong of the government and you are an enemy of the state. Look at the FOX news issue. Okay Francis, I'll say it. Look at the middle east and oil.

Published by: Amy
Arvada 10/26/2009 10:50 AM EST

In what way will Sister Maria Restituta be honored? Is she being declared Blessed? Also, please correct her date of death, which reads March 40, 1943.

Published by: Kathy
US 10/26/2009 10:48 AM EST

pray for us Blessed Maria Restituta! Give us strength and courage!

Published by: Marguerite
FL 10/26/2009 07:35 AM EST

Send this article to the administrators at Georgetown University who covered the crucifixes when the president visited there!

Published by: Dan
Santa Fe 10/26/2009 07:32 AM EST

She was beheaded for refusing to take down some Cruicifixes. This is a modern day example as to why Jesus said on The Cross--'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'.

Published by: ed
usa 10/26/2009 03:56 AM EST

A courageous and remarkable nurse -- a model for us all.

Published by: Francis
Wareham Ma 10/25/2009 07:31 PM EST

"When the Germans took over, she became a local opponent of the Nazi regime. Her conflict with them escalated after they ordered her to remove all the crucifixes that she had hung up in each room of a new hospital wing". Sound familiar?? It is scary that in the above sentence you could replace "Germans" or "Nazi" with the modern equivalent of Christophobes and heathens here in the USA with words like "the Democrats", "the ACLU", "the ADL", the "leftists", or the "liberals"! History tends to repeat itself. Of course I'm not comparing these modern American political parties and organizations to the Nazis when it comes to murder and genocide; but their hatred of Our Lord and his Catholic Church are on the same level with the Nazis and the Communists, without the mass murder.

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