Jakob Franz Alexander Kern

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Franz Alexander Kern (left) as soprano soloist next to music prefect Franz Lehner. Oberhollabrunn 1912.
Memorial plaque at the Penzinger parish church in Vienna
Reliquary in the Geras Abbey

Jakob Kern (* as Franz Alexander Kern April 11, 1897 in Breitensee near Vienna ; † October 20, 1924 in Vienna) was a Premonstratensian Canon and was beatified .

Life

He was born on Breitenseer Straße in today's 14th district of Penzing and baptized on April 19, 1897 in the Penzing parish church , to which Breitenseer Straße still belonged at that time.

After attending elementary school, he entered the boys' seminar of the Archdiocese of Vienna in Oberhollabrunn in 1908 . A classmate was Rudolf Henz . In 1911 he became a tertiary of the Franciscans and took the vow of chastity at the age of 16.

On October 7, 1915, he passed the war Matura on kk Staatsgymnasium Oberhollabrunn and moved on October 15, 1915 to the First World War one. On September 11, 1916, he was seriously wounded on the southwestern front by a lung and liver penetration and was in danger of death for months. He was promoted to ensign and awarded the 2nd class medal for bravery.

As he was unfit for the field, he was able to enter the Vienna seminary on October 20, 1917 and begin studying theology, but was called up again towards the end of the war. In Vienna he was a member of the K.Ö.HV Amelungia Wien , then in the CV , today in the ÖCV .

The resignation of the Premonstratensian Isidor Bogdan Zahradník from the Strahov Monastery in Prague on December 23, 1919 , which joined the Czech National Church, induced Franz Alexander Kern to join the Premonstratensian Canons of Geras , where he was dressed on October 18, 1920 and received the religious name Jacob . The namesake was St. Jacob Lacoupe OPraem, one of the martyrs of Gorkum .

He was ordained a priest on July 23, 1922 in Vienna . Because of his wound, he kept coughing and spitting up blood. Nevertheless, he began pastoral care in Geras and the monastery parishes.

On August 10, 1923, four ribs were removed from him in the Oberhollabrunn hospital. Because of his poor health, the operation had to be performed without anesthesia. In 1924 four more ribs were removed while he was fully conscious, and he died in a third operation on October 20, 1924 in the Vienna General Hospital . On this day he should have made his perpetual profession. He took his suffering and pain as atonement.

His shrine is located next to the portal in the collegiate church of Geras. There are relics in Geras (including his primary chalice and vestment) and Vienna.

On September 30, 1956, the beatification process began. On June 21, 1998 , he was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Heldenplatz in Vienna .

His feast day in the Catholic Church is October 20th.

Quotes

In his address on June 21, 1998 on Heldenplatz in Vienna , Pope John Paul II described Jakob Kern as “a cheerful, colorful student” who not only bore his grievous suffering in unchanging fidelity to God, but also sacrificed himself for others. Jakob Kern, said the Pope, stood before us “as a witness for his loyalty to the priesthood”. "Despite the most serious illness, he followed his calling and thus became a role model worth emulating."

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personal data
SURNAME Kern, Jakob Franz Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kern, Jakob; Kern, Franz Alexander (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Premonstratensian and Seliger
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Breitensee (Vienna)
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1924
Place of death Vienna