Faulhaber, Andreas
FAULHABER, ANDREAS
Martyred for the seal of confession; b. Glatz, Silesia, May 21, 1713; d. Glatz, Dec. 30, 1757. Faulhaber became a priest in 1750. In the fortress town of Glatz, Prussian steps to stamp out Catholic loyalties to the Hapsburgs had led to mutual distrust. A Prussian deserter in the Seven Years' War declared under questioning that Faulhaber had heard his confession and by implication had condoned desertion. This testimony was retracted repeatedly, but it led to the arrest and imprisonment of Faulhaber. While the trial was still pending, Frederick II instructed the commander to execute Faulhaber and not to allow him a confessor. Faulhaber refused to save himself by revealing the deserter's confession. His body, miraculously preserved, was left hanging for 31 months until Austrian troops took it down from the gallows on July 26, 1760, and entombed it in the church in Glatz. In 1930, steps were taken to promote his beatification, but since the ordered expulsion of German clergy from Glatz (now Klodzko in Southwest Poland), after World War II, efforts seem to be blocked.
Bibliography: l. pastor, The History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages (London-St. Louis 1938–61) 36:89. e. henseler, P. Faulhaber der Glatzer Kaplan (Heidelberg 1956). k. engelbert, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 4:41.
[h. w. l. freudenthal]