Do ideal ao real na vocação laical matrimonial à santidade

: o casal Franz e Fransizka Jägerstätter

Abstract

Inserted into the Vine that is Christ, all the baptised are called to a life of holiness and configuration with that Vine. This presupposes a call that needs to be a vocation, because God always calls to this path, but a positive and continuous response from the human being is necessary. This Dissertation seeks to establish a relationship between the universal call to holiness and the vocation of the Christian, as a response to the conversion of the heart. In this relationship – and knowing that not all of God’s people have the same charisms and functions –, the author chooses to analyse lay holiness by finding in the vocation to marriage a path to perfection and a possible agent for changing mentalities. Starting at one point with a specific couple, Franz and Franziska Jägerstätter, he addresses the difficulties of Nazism in Austrian society and Church and how that couple were able to live out their marriage. This love, guided by faith and supported by God, moved towards the couple’s charitable love, which leads to their mutual surrender to each other. In this way, they were able to live and witness to Christ in their marriage and in the links inherent to it, being Blessed, but without losing the specificity of each one in following Christ, priest, prophet, and king. In the unity of love, through their own characteristics, they were a school in the family and beyond.

Date of Award	14 Jun 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Alexandre Freire Duarte (Supervisor)