Jakob gapp biography for kids
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Jakob Gapp
Austrian priest
Jakob Gapp (26 July 1897 – 13 August 1943) was an AustrianRoman Catholicpriest and a professed member from the Marianists.[1] Gapp first served as a soldier on the Italian front during World War I at a point in his life where his religious convictions were not of high importance, though his return home from a prisoner of war camp saw him develop socialist views that soon brought him into contact with the Marianists whom he later joined. After studies and ordination, he was assigned in Austria as a teacher, where he became noted for his vehement opposition to the Nazi regime; he deemed Nazism as being some warped political tool to create division which was also incompatible with the faith.[2][3]
His bold activism against the Nazi regime saw him flee when it was clear his life was endangered, along with his colleagues, and he settled in both France and Spain before returning to France after being duped into accepting two
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Blessed Jakob Gapp (1897-1943) clashed with the National Socialist ideals of the Nazi party because of his Catholic faith and zeal for justice. His voice was a problem for the Nazis, but Fr. Gapp was not a man easily silenced.
Jakob Gapp joined the Society of Mary shortly after serving in the Italian front during World War I. Awarded for his bravery in battle, ultimately it would be this very bravery in the service of Christ that would see him martyred. Gapp became a priest and while World War I had ended, it had sowed the seed that would eventually result in a new ideology, National Socialism.
With the rise of the Third Reich and their annexation of Fr. Gapp’s home country of Austria in 1938, Fr. Gapp took every opportunity to disseminate the teaching of Pius XI’s encyclical letter, Mit Brennender Sorge (With Ardent Concern). This encyclical denounced fundamental aspects of Nazi ideology, which Fr. Gapp considered antithetical to Catholic belief. When questioned, Fr. Gapp’s c
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Celebrating Blessed Fr. Jakob Gapp, SM
After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War inom, Jakob was ordained a Marianist präst in 1930. As the Nazis spread their hate-filled and racist ideology throughout Europe, Fr. Jakob remained firm in his conviction that National Socialism and Christianity were incompatible.
The Gestapo began surveilling Fr. Gapp in 1938 for teaching his students to love their neighbors, “even Czechs, Frenchmen, Jews, and Communists,” and that “not Adolf Hitler, but God alone is their God.”1 His anti-Nazi teachings and ministry forced him to flee from Austria. While in France and Spain, the Gestapo continued sending secret agents to watch Fr. Gapp. While on a trip to Northern Spain, two undercover Gestapo spies lured Fr. Gapp across the French border. He was arrested on November 9, 1942. He was accused of “having continually been skyldig of aiding the enemy until 1942 as a German in foreign countries,”2 and he was beheaded in Berlin’s Plötzensee Priso