Blessed Marcel Callo, Young Worker and Martyr of Mauthausen

Who was Blessed Marcel Callo?

Blessed Marcel Callo was a young French worker who took his faith with him into the Nazi labor system and died for it. A printer from Rennes, a Scout and a member of the Young Christian Workers, known by its French initials as the JOC, he was sent to Germany for forced labor in 1943. There he quietly organized prayer, Mass and friendship among the French workers until the Gestapo arrested him for being, in their words, "too Catholic." He died in the Gusen camp of Mauthausen at twenty-three.

The life of Blessed Marcel

A young printer from Rennes

Marcel Callo was born in Rennes, in Brittany, on December 6, 1921. John Paul II described his family as modest and deeply Christian, and he said Marcel did not reach holiness on his own: his family brought him to it, and the Scouts and then the JOC carried on the work. At twelve he became an apprentice in a print shop and later worked as a typesetter.

When his mother once asked whether he might become a priest, he answered plainly: "I do not feel called to the priesthood; I think I do more good by remaining in the world" (our translation). He became engaged to a young woman whom, the pope said, he loved "tenderly and chastely."

"I am leaving as a missionary"

In 1943 his sister was killed in a bombing raid, and that same year he was called up for the STO, the compulsory labor service that sent young Frenchmen to work in German factories. He went, and he went with a purpose. "I am leaving as a missionary, to help others resist," he said.

He was sent to Zella-Mehlis in Thuringia and put to work in an arms factory, lodged in a camp of about three thousand workers. He set to work at once, organizing Christian life among the workers in secret, and with a few friends he rebuilt the JOC in Germany. "Christ is a friend who never leaves you for an instant and who knows how to sustain you," he wrote; "with Him one bears everything."

"Too Catholic"

On April 19, 1944, the Gestapo arrested him with eleven friends. The charge, as it was told to him, was that he was too Catholic. He spent about five months in the prison at Gotha, then was sent to Flossenbürg and on to Mauthausen in Austria, where he labored mostly at Gusen II, one of its harshest subcamps. Worn out by hunger, forced labor and illness, he died at dawn on March 19, 1945, the feast of St. Joseph. A French officer imprisoned with him, Colonel Tibodo, had seen thousands of prisoners die. He testified that Marcel "had the look of a saint." His body was burned in the camp crematory.

Beatification as a martyr

John Paul II beatified Marcel Callo in Rome on October 4, 1987, during the world Synod of Bishops on the vocation of the laity, together with two young Italian laywomen, Antonia Mesina and Pierina Morosini. Because the Church recognized that he died out of hatred for the faith, no approved miracle was needed. "Marcel met the Cross," the pope said, and "like the Lord, he loved his own to the end, and his life became Eucharist." Favors received through his prayers are reported graces until one is examined for his canonization.

Symbols of Blessed Marcel in art

Marcel Callo lived in the age of photography, and artists work from those photographs: a slim young man with round dark glasses and combed-back hair, in a jacket and tie.

• JOC and Scout badges: the signs of the two movements that formed him.
• Prisoner's clothing: for his last year in the Nazi prisons and camps.
• Open hands: the carved statue in Saint-Aubin, Rennes, shows him with hands open, a young worker offering his life.

Feast day and where he is honored

We keep his feast on March 19, the day he died, as the Roman Martyrology lists it. Because that day belongs to St. Joseph, his memory is also kept on April 19, the anniversary of his arrest, in some places. He is remembered in Rennes, at Mauthausen, where his portrait hangs in the parish church of St. Nicholas, and in Zella-Mehlis, where a square bears his name. Youth centers in Germany carry his name. See more on our feast days page.

Praying with Blessed Marcel

We have not found an official English prayer to Blessed Marcel Callo, so we do not print one. His own words are a good place to begin: Christ is a friend who never leaves us for an instant.

Let us ask Blessed Marcel Callo to pray for young workers far from home, for engaged couples, for migrants and for all who are pressured to hide their faith at work.