Anna Schäffer

Deprived of the religious life to which she aspired, Anna Schäffer gradually understood her illness as a vocation: to offer her suffering for the salvation of souls and the Church. From her bed, which she described as a workshop where she could conform herself to the cross of Christ, she developed a true apostolate. She spoke of three "keys to Heaven": suffering, the needle, and the pen. Skilled at needlework, she embroidered, despite her weakened hands, pious images, notably of the Sacred Heart, which she gave away. Above all, she maintained an abundant correspondence: some 183 letters and notes written between 1910 and 1925 are attributed to her, through which she advised and consoled numerous visitors and recipients who came to her seeking comfort and spiritual direction. Pope John Paul II summarized this dimension by saying that her room had become "the cradle of a vast epistolary apostolate." She also left notebooks where she recorded her interior experiences, which she described with simplicity as "dreams," written in a modest language reflecting her limited education. Her condition deteriorated over the years, with convulsions and, towards the end, the loss of sight and speech.

The spirituality of Anna Schäffer was rooted in a fervent Eucharistic devotion: she received communion almost daily and drew her strength from it, declaring that she felt so fulfilled that she would not want to change her bed of pain. Her inner life was marked by a Marian devotion, by an attachment to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and by an attitude of abandonment and expiation. Her confessors, including Father Karl Rieger who brought her communion for years, testified that she never complained despite constant pain. According to hagiographic sources and the tradition received by the Church, she received the stigmata on October 4, 1910, felt as marks of fire on her hands, feet, and heart, which she long strove to conceal, as well as mystical phenomena and visions. Her pains intensified, it is said, on Thursdays, Fridays, and feast days, in union with the Passion. This transformation of trial into a gift of love fostered, during her lifetime and after her death, a solid reputation for holiness. According to several sources, among her last words was the invocation 'Jesus, for you I live!'

Anna Schäffer died on October 5, 1925, in Mindelstetten, at the age of forty-three. The reputation of holiness that surrounded her quickly sparked an influx of pilgrims to her grave and numerous accounts of graces and healings attributed to her intercession. The cause for beatification was introduced in 1973, and a vast investigation collected thousands of testimonies. Pope John Paul II proclaimed her blessed on March 7, 1999, in Rome; the miracle accepted for the beatification was the rapid and complete healing of a young man who had suffered a severe head injury following an accident, which was deemed medically inexplicable. She was subsequently canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012, in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican; the miracle recognized for the canonization was the healing, deemed scientifically inexplicable by the medical consultation in 2010, of a woman suffering from ascites resulting from liver cirrhosis, who recovered after praying to Saint Anna Schäffer. Her liturgical memorial is set for October 5.

The spiritual heritage of Anna Schäffer makes her one of the great modern figures of the "apostolate of suffering" and a model for the laity, the sick, and caregivers. Her remains rest in the parish church of Mindelstetten, which has become a place of pilgrimage where people continue to seek her intercession; sources report that very many graces and healings have been recorded there since the end of the 1920s, with more than fifteen thousand accounts having been registered over the decades. Her birthplace and her room, preserved as a memorial, as well as centers and associations bearing her name, maintain her memory in Bavaria and beyond. Often invoked by the sick, the infirm, and those who bear a physical or moral cross, she is presented by the Church as a witness to hope and the spiritual fruitfulness of suffering offered out of love, following the example of Christ. Her canonization in 2012 strengthened the reach of her message, disseminated through her letters and writings, which have been translated into several languages.