Franz Alexander Kern

Franz Alexander Kern (11 April 1897 - 20 October 1924), also known by his religious name Jakob, was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Premonstratensians.

[1] Kern served as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces during World War I and suffered threatening injuries that impeded his health for the remainder of his life and which often hampered his studies.

[2][3] Kern was beatified on 21 June 1998 in Vienna during the apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II to Austria.

[2][3] Before his birth his mother travelled to a Marian shrine to seek protection for her unborn child and made a promise that if it were to be a male she would implore Jesus Christ to call him to the priesthood.

His mother searched for him and found him gazing at objects in a store window that had distracted the toddler as he went to go and find his sister.

[3] He also liked to act out a pretend Mass as a child and this seeped into one particular Christmas when he was either four or five: he received a stuffed horse and a train set although he had said he wanted instead an altar with candles and flowers.

In his childhood he exhibited and fostered an ardent dedication to become a priest - his mother instilled in him his religious upbringing - and so in September 1908 was granted permission to become a seminarian in Hollabrunn.

On 1 January 1916 he attended adoration in the church of Saint Blasé in Salzburg and during a 40-hour devotion asked God to allow him to share in the suffering of Jesus Christ.

Before he left for this assignment he spent an hour in adoration at a chapel in Vöckalbruck and he later arrived in Schlunders at 1:30am with limited time for sleep.

[3] Kern once injured his knee while serving in an instance that required him to undergo an operation and then rest in bed for under a week.

He soon received his ordination to the priesthood on 23 July 1922 in the cathedral of Saint Stephen from Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl.

Local anesthetic was used and so he had to endure extreme pain and he never recovered from this operation which caused an even greater deterioration in his health - he had also refused to take painkillers during his time of rest.

He seemed to recover during a brief respite in Merano but his health deteriorated at a rapid pace not long after in which he had bouts of repeated coughing and spitting blood.