Blessed Eustachius Kugler

Joseph Kugler, OH (15 January 1867 - 10 June 1946) was a German Roman Catholic professed religious of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. Kugler entered the congregation in 1893 and assumed his religious name Eustachius upon admittance into the novitiate. Kugler came into direct contact with the Gestapo during World War II and came to their attention due to being an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. He also opposed their approval of euthanasia of the ill and old and their anti-Christian policies. The rite of beatification for the late religious was celebrated in the Regensburg Cathedral on 4 October 2009 with Archbishop Angelo Amato presiding over the beatification on the behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Joseph Kugler was born on 15 January 1867 in the Kingdom of Bavaria as the son of a blacksmith. He had at least one sister and one brother. His father died in 1874 and his mother died sometime in the 1880s. In 1880 he began to work as an apprentice locksmith. However he became injured in an accident and was forced to stop working following an accident where he fell from a scaffold and injured his leg - the issues with his leg transcended to his foot and remained with him throughout his life resulting in a slight limp. In 1884 he returned home and moved in with his sister who was married to a blacksmith and he later began working once again but this time with his brother. Kugler joined the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God - on 11 January 1893 - but faced initial resistance in entering due to the injuries he had sustained in the past which were believed would impede his admission. The provincial later relented and allowed for Kugler to commence his time in the novitiate; Kugler assumed the religious name of "Eustachius" in 1893. He made his profession in 1898.