John Brenner, priest and martyr (1931–1957)

Biography

Young Hungarian priest and martyr, John Brenner was murdered while bringing the Eucharist to a supposedly sick person. He had secretly begun Cistercian life, but the suppression of the religious orders led him to continue his training in the diocesan seminary. Ordained in 1955, his fruitful apostolate among young people bothered the communist regime. On the night of December 14, 1957, he was lured out of the parish and attacked with thirty-two stab wounds. He died protecting the Eucharistic teca that he kept clenched in his left hand.