He had been noted during his episcopate for his attentiveness to vocations and for the defense of the faith from those forces that sought to disrupt it such as communism.

János Scheffler was born on 29 October 1887 in Kálmánd, Austria-Hungary (now Cămin, Romania) as the second of ten children.

[4] In July 1914 - as World War I was beginning - he became a professor of theological studies and the dean of students at Szatmárnémeti (today Satu Mare, Romania).

In 1925 he started teaching seminarians for the priesthood and attended the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago from 20–24 June 1926.

[2] After World War II he began to express opposition to government policies objecting to the deportation of Germans to the Soviet Union.

He appealed for the release of Alexandru Rusu who was the Greek-Catholic Bishop of Maramureș that the new communist regime had arrested.

He refused an offer to become a bishop in a national church subjected to the regime and so was imprisoned as a result of this on 19 March 1952.

[1] The beatification process started on 12 December 1991 under Pope John Paul II after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" and titled Scheffler as a Servant of God.