Blessed Jakob Franz Alexander Kern

Franz Alexander Kern (11 April 1897 - 20 October 1924), also known by his religious name Jakob, was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Premonstratensians. Kern served as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces during World War I and suffered threatening injuries that impeded his health for the remainder of his life and which often hampered his studies. He fostered an intense devotion for the Eucharist - for which he was known - and was often found in constant Eucharistic Adoration. Kern was beatified on 21 June 1998 in Vienna during the apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II to Austria. Franz Alexander Kern was born in Vienna on 11 April 1897 to Franz and Anna Kern at 56 Breitenseerstrasse; he had at least one sister who became a nun. He was baptized in the local parish church on 19 April 1897 with his two names being those of his father and his godfather Alexander Kern. Before his birth his mother travelled to a Marian shrine to seek protection for her unborn child and made a promise that if it were to be a male she would implore Jesus Christ to call him to the priesthood. Kern's mother died in 1919 and on her deathbed told her son about the promise that she had made back in 1897. In 1899 he asked his mother where his sister was to which his mother replied "in the church" and so he left the house. His mother searched for him and found him gazing at objects in a store window that had distracted the toddler as he went to go and find his sister. His relieved mother took him home and corrected him for this incident. He also liked to act out a pretend Mass as a child and this seeped into one particular Christmas when he was either four or five: he received a stuffed horse and a train set although he had said he wanted instead an altar with candles and flowers.