Saint Nikolaus Gross

Nikolaus Gross (German: Groß) (30 September 1898 – 23 January 1945) was a German Roman Catholic layman and trade unionist. Gross first worked in crafts requiring skilled labor before becoming a coal miner like his father while joining a range of trade union and political movements. But he soon settled on becoming a journalist before he got married while World War II prompted him to become a resistance fighter in the time of the Third Reich and for his anti-violent rhetoric and approach to opposing Adolf Hitler. He was also one of those implicated and arrested for the assassination attempt on Hitler despite not being involved himself. His beatification process saw it acknowledged that Gross had died in 1945 in odium fidei ("in hatred of the faith"). Pope John Paul II presided over the beatification for the murdered journalist on 7 October 2001 in Saint Peter's Square. Nikolaus Gross was born in Niederwenigern on 30 September 1898 to a colliery blacksmith; he was baptized on 2 October and he attended the local Catholic school from 1905 until 1912. Gross first worked in a plate rolling mill as a grinder (1912–15) and then as a coal miner from 1915 until 1920. In June 1917 he joined the Christian Mineworkers' Trade Union and in 1918 joined a Christian political movement. On 6 June 1919 he joined the Saint Anthony's Miners' Association. He furthered his education in evening courses at the Volksverein für das katholische Deutschland and in 1920 gave up his job as a miner and worked for the Christian Mineworkers' Trade Union ("Gewerkverein Christlicher Bergarbeiter") in Oberhausen in a secretarial role from July 1920 until June 1921. From July 1921 until May 1922 he was an assistant editor at the union newspaper known as the "Bergknappen" in Essen. From June 1922 until October 1922 he was a trade union secretarial worker in Waldenburg in Lower Silesia and afterwards in Zwickau and then at (December 1924 to December 1926) Bottrop.