Blessed Josef Mayr-Nusser

Josef Mayr-Nusser (27 December 1910 – 24 February 1945) was an Italian Roman Catholic who served as the President of the Saint Vincent de Paul Conference of the Bolzano division as well as a member of Catholic Action. He is known best for refusing to recite the Hitler oath after he was drafted as a Nazi soldier and was sentenced to death at the Dachau concentration camp. He died en route to the camp in 1945. He is known as the "Martyr of the First Commandment". Mayr-Nusser was hailed for living his life according to the tenets of the Gospel and of Vincent de Paul. Josef Mayr-Nusser was born on 27 December 1910 in Bolzano into a rural German-Italian household. He grew up on a farm in which his devout parents instilled in him Christian values along with his elder brother Jakob, who enrolled in a seminary to become a priest. Mayr-Nusser became fascinated with the life and works of Frederic Ozanam and with the life of Vincent de Paul. To that end, in an attempt to emulate the pair and to help the poor in the spirit of charity, he joined the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul at the age of 22 and became its elected president in 1937. Mayr-Nusser served as the president of the society in its Bolzano division and in that capacity constantly visited the poor, providing them both material and spiritual assistance, in the process becoming a vocal anti-poverty advocate. In a 1938 letter to members, Mayr-Nusser said: "When a brother is going to visit a poor family, you should do everything to organize your time so you can spend at least 10–15 minutes to visit people". In an attempt to deepen his understanding of faith, he studied the letters of Thomas More and the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Mayr-Nusser's friends nicknamed him "Pepi" in his adolescence and early adulthood. In 1934, he became the head of Catholic Action in the Diocese of Trent, accepting the invitation of Pope Pius XI to broaden his lay activities.