Pope Benedict XVI's Homily at Mass of Canonization of Seven New Saints
"May the witness of these new saints[...]speak today to the whole Church"
[in German] Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to enter a missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order to earn the dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as a maid. One day she suffered a terrible accident and received incurable burns on her legs which forced her to be bed-ridden for the rest of her life. So her sick-bed became her cloister cell and her suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept her fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call from the crucified One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she became an untiring intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for the many who sought her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of sacrifice and expiation, be a shining example for believers in her homeland, and may her intercession strengthen the Christian hospice movement in its beneficial activity.
FRANCISCAN SAINTS: Blessed Anna Schaffer (1882-1925)
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Anna was modest and devote. As she could go to the first Communion in 1894, she offered herself to the Savior as a victim soul.
Wishing to enter an order of missionary sisters, after finishing school she tried to earn the necessary dowry working in various places as a servant. But God had other plans.
In June 1898, Anna heard Jesus' voice telling her things which would be decisive for the rest of her life: she would endure long and painful suffering. Anna was alarmed, but willingly prepared herself to suffer. On 4 February 1901, at the forester's lodge in Stammham, her time of suffering began. That day, the stovepipe over the laundry boiler had become detached from the wall, but in trying to fix it, Anna unfortunately slipped into a vat of boiling lye, scalding both legs to above the knees.
Despite intensive treatment in the hospital, the doctors were unable to heal her injuries. After she was released from hospital as an invalid in May 1902, she went back to her mother's home, but her condition continued to worsen, confining her completely to bed. To her painful infirmity was added extreme poverty.
After futile attempts at rebellion, Anna learned to recognize God's will in this harsh school of suffering and to accept it with ever greater joy. In weakness and poverty she heard the loving call of the Crucified One to become like him. This was her mission in life and its fulfilment. She generously decided to offer her life and sufferings to God. Every day she received Holy Communion from her wise spiritual director and parish priest, Fr Karl Rieger.
In the autumn of 1910 some extraordinary things happened. In a vision Anna, who was a Franciscan Tertiary, saw Saint Francis announcing her a visit of the Lord. On October 4, Saint Francis feast day, during the Morning Prayers of the Breviary, she saw the Redeemer who said He was ready to accept her sacrifice of reparation. When the priest came bringing the Communion, she saw five flames from the Host, that pierced her hands, feet and chest. From that time, and few people knew it, she bore the wounds of Christ, the stigmata. Later, in order to suffer in secret and to avoid any sensationalism, she asked the Lord to remove the visible stigmata.
On 25 April 1923, Anna had another special day: she lived the events of Good Friday in her body and soul. Thereafter, her condition considerably worsened. Her legs became completely paralyzed; this was followed by painful cramps due to a stiffening of the spinal cord and, finally, by cancer of the rectum. But she was able to combine an active apostolate with one of prayer, sacrifice and suffering. She wrote countless letters to the needy and to those who sought her advice in Austria, Germany, Swiss and America; she gladly did embroidery for churches and chapels. In a letter of 29 January 1925 she wrote: "The most important thing for me is to pray and suffer for the holy Church and her Pastors. Whenever I receive Holy Communion, I fervently pray to our beloved Redeemer to continue protecting his holy Church and her Pastors, to grant me the most agonizing martyrdom and to accept me as a little victim of reparation."
Her daily prayer was: "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, grant me to save many souls, especially those that for desperation hardly could help themselves; those that are near the abyss and mostly need Your mercy. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, multiply my suffering and accept them for the sake of the souls, that I could save for you! Sorrowful Mother, lend always me a burning thirst, to work at the salvation of the immortal souls, to pray for them and to suffer!"
After accidently falling out of bed five weeks before her death, Anna suffered a brain injury, causing her to lose her voice and sight; thus she became even more a "silent victim". No one could believe she could endure so hard pains.
In the morning of October 5 1925 she received for the last time the Communion, the source of power of her 25 years long suffering time. As she was making the Sign of the Cross and saying "Jesus, I live in you", she died.
In her last letter she had written: "My biggest strength is the Sacred Communion. The sun of my life is Jesus in the most sacred Sacrament."
Since her death, Anna's grave was visited by many person, praying for their necessities. In 1972 Anna's body was moved from the graveyard to the parish-church of Mindelstetten and the beatification process started. At March 7, 1999 Pope Johannes Paul II added Anna Schaffer to the list of the Blessed of the Catholic Church.
Blessed Anna's life teaches us to take our cross and follow Christ unto crucifixion. How do we die to self and let Christ be all and all in us? How long it takes to accept our daily trials as a gift direct from the hands of our Lord? The word crucifixion, as it applies to us in the Christian sense, may be defined as any pain or suffering which joins us to Christ. There may be many kinds of sorrow and suffering which do not serve the purpose of true crucifixion. In order that suffering may be a thorough mortification to us, it must be put in the will of God. When we yield ourselves absolutely up to God, and trust Him to take charge of our being and life and circumstances, it is then that His omnipotence takes possession of all our trials and sufferings, and makes them work a true crucifixion in us. It does not matter what the occasion of the suffering may be. It may come from poverty, or ill-health, or loss of friends, or separations, or temptations, or the hatred of others, or great disappointment; it may come from many of these sources; but let it come from any cause in the universe, if we give it over entirely into the hands of God, and sink ourselves into His will, with a perfect desire for Him to work His best will in us, He will make every pain, every groan, every tear, every suffering, work in us a death to self, and to all things on earth, which will be for our highest perfection and His glory.
Submitted by Anna Ferroni—Turin, Italy
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