IT MAKES SENSE TO ME
©Larry Peterson 2017 All Right Reserved
By Larry
Peterson
The number of saints in
the Catholic Church numbers in the thousands. In fact, the exact number
is open to question. Among these are many saints most of us have never
heard of. These saints are the obscure spiritual gems whose stories can
take your breath away. Say "hello" to Anna Schaffer.
Anna Schaffer was born
into a simple, hardworking family in Mindelstetten in
Bavaria on February 18, 1882. The third of six children, Anna was a fine student
who studied hard and received good grades. When she was a small child she had
felt a deep calling to the religious life but circumstances sometimes hurl
themselves into your path changing your destination.
Anna made her First
Holy Communion on April 12, 1893. At that time she had a
profound encounter with Jesus. She had not spoken to anyone about it but she
wrote a letter to Our Lord telling Him to "do with me as you want...I want
to atone and become a sacrifice to atone for all dishonor and offenses against
you." She was 11 years old and was giving herself over to Christ.
Anna's dad passed away
at the age of 40. The year was 1896. Anna, now 14, had already been
working part time for a household in Regensburg but now her family was thrust
into poverty. She had dreamed of one day entering a religious order but
circumstances now forced her to give up thoughts of any more schooling and find
full time work to help support the household. She acquired several positions
and finally landed a job in a pub called the Gameskeeper's Cottage in
nearby Stammham. Part of her job description included doing the laundry.
The Victorian era
washing machines they were using were designed to have a fire underneath and
the rising heat would boil the water in the tub above. These
"machines" had galvanized metal smoke stacks to vent the smoke
outside the building. The stack on the machine Anna was using came loose from
the wall. She was sure she could fix it.
Anna climbed up on the
edge of the tub to force the pipe back into the hole. As she stretched up to
reattach the pipe she slipped and fell into the boiling, sudsy water. In a
flash she was up to her knees in the bubbling cauldron having her legs boiled. The
date was February 4, 1901. Anna was 19 years old and her life had been changed
forever.
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| St. Anna Schaffer en.wikipedia.org |
Anna was rushed over to
the nearby hospital. Everything they tried to do for her failed to help. They
operated over thirty times and every time the pain was excruciating as they had
to scrape dead skin away and re-bandage the poor girl's legs. She was given up as
a “lost cause” and the experts assumed she would die from infection. Skin
grafts would not take and Anna became immobilized.
However, for some
unexplainable reason, Anna stabilized and three months later was sent home.
The local doctors,
unable to help Anna, several times sent her to the University Clinic of
Erlangen for treatment. But this brought her nothing but anguish as the
"experts" experimented with various "new" treatments in
their quest to help her. They even forcibly broke the joints in her feet
several times to free them up from their immobility. The pain she endured must
have been horrific. Her mother became her caregiver and would care for her
daughter until the end of her life.
In 1898 Anna had seen a
vision where Jesus appeared to her as the Good Shepherd and told her the
suffering that was going to be hers before the age of 20. Jesus’ prediction had
now come to pass and there was nothing anyone could do to help her. Anna embarked on a journey of having to endure
unimaginable pain every day as her legs would never heal. Open, festering
wounds would always be present. But Jesus was in her life coupled with her deep
devotion to the Blessed Mother. Anna Schaffer was about to inspire many more
than just those in her local community.
Anna admitted in a
letter that it took her two years to recognize God's will in her life as she
had offered it to Him on her First Communion Day. She embraced God’s will fully
and Jesus appeared to her saying, "I accepted you in atonement for my Holy
Sacrament. And in the future when you receive Holy Communion you will feel the
pains of My passion with which I have redeemed you."
On October 4, 1910, Anna
received the stigmata. From that day forward Jesus would feel Anna’s pain as
Anna felt His. She wrote that she had
the intense pain of the passion which increased on Thursday, Fridays, Sundays
and on Feast days. She became a beloved person in the town and people began
coming from everywhere to hear the gentle and comforting words she spoke. Every
day she drew closer and closer to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin as Jesus united
her suffering with His own.
In 1925 Anna developed
colon cancer and, at the time, there was nothing anyone could do for that. On
October 5, 1925, Anna was given Holy Communion. She opened her eyes wide and
said, "Jesus, I live for you." Then she closed her eyes and journeyed
home with her Lord.
Since 1929, Over 15.000
miracles have been attributed to the intercession of Anna Schaffer. In 1998
alone 551 miracles were recorded through her intercession (many of these have
not yet been validated by the Church). Anna was beatified by St. John Paul II
in1999 and canonized a saint by Pope Benedict in 2011.
Saint Anna Schaffer,
please pray for us.
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