Wagner, Liborius, Bl.

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WAGNER, LIBORIUS, BL.

Martyr, convert, and priest; b. Mülhausen, Thuringia, Germany, 1593; d. Schonungen, Germany, December 9, 1631. He studied at Leipzig, Gotha, Strasbourg, and Würzburg, where he was converted to Catholicism by the Jesuits. He was ordained in 1625, was chaplain in Hardheim, and in 1626 became pastor in Altenmünster, near Schweinfurt, devoting himself to regaining Catholics who had become Protestants. During the Thirty Years' War, when the Swedes invaded Germany, Liborius hid, but he was betrayed and imprisoned. For refusing to apostatize he was tortured for five days and then killed. His body was thrown into the Main but recovered. It has been in Klosterheidenfeld since 1803. At Wagner's beatification on March 24, 1974, Pope Paul VI cited him as a model in the cause of ecumenism and unity.

Feast: Dec. 9.

Bibliography: k. hofmann, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberger (Freiburg 1930738) 10:711712. a. mercati and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiatico (Turin 195458) 3:1364. Acta Apostolae Sedis 66 [1974] 373375. L'Osservatore Romano (Eng) 1974, n. 15, 45.

[f. d. s. boran]