NEURURER, OTTO, BL.

First priest martyred by the Nazis; b. March 25, 1882, Piller, Oberinntal, Austria; d. May 30, 1940 at Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. Otto, the youngest of twelve children of peasants, attended the Vincentian minor seminary and diocesan major seminary in Brixen (Bressanone), South Tyrol. He was ordained priest on June 29, 1907 by Archbishop Altenweisel. His first assignment was in Urdens (Zillertal), then he served in parishes in Fiß (Oberinntal), Kappl (Paznautal), and Innsbruck, among others.

During Neururer's final assignment at SS. Peter and Paul in Götzens, the Nazis occupied Tyrol and subjected the Church to persecution. Neururer was arrested for interfering with a "German marriage" after he advised a girl against marrying a dissolute, divorced man who was a friend of the Tyrolean Gauleiter, the highest local Nazi official. He was tortured in Dachau concentration camp, then sent to Buchenwald, where he catechized other inmates, despite severe prohibition. A camp spy reported the priest's actions, and Neururer was hanged by his ankles.

His cremated remains are enshrined under the altar of his parish church at Götzens. In his beatification homily (Nov. 24, 1996), Pope John Paul II praised Neururer for "defending the sanctity of Christian marriage in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances." He is the patron of preachers, marriage, and priestly service.

Feast: May 30.

Bibliography: j. gelmi, Kirchengeschichte Tirols (Innsbruck 1986): 198, 257, 260. h. tschol, Pfarrer Neururer-Priester und Blutzeuge (Innsbruck 1963); Otto Neururer (Innsbruck 1982). L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 48 (1996): 1–3.

[k. i. rabenstein]