Franz Jagerstatter

The 1938 Anschluss ("link-up") annexing Austria into Nazi Germany signaled doom for dissenters opposing the Third Reich. Hitler was Austrian, and the Nazi party had many supporters in Hitler's homeland eager to participate in the Nazi plan for world conquest and the extermination of all Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, and other assorted groups they labeled "undesirable." Franz Jagerstatter was a married layperson who knew that fascism and Catholicism are mutually opposed. When the army drafted Jagerstatter he refused to serve, and after three attempts the Nazi courts had the father of four children beheaded in prison. By executing Jagerstatter the Nazis hoped to make an example of the consequences of dissent, but instead he became a shining example of how a peacemaker's actions outlast even the most brutal regimes. In June of 2007 Jagerstatter was beatified with his 94-year old widow in attendance.

Sources: http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2007/10/blessed-franz.html