Today, July 27, is the feast of Blessed Titus Brandsma.
Patron saint of the Philippine Province of the Order of Carmelites.
Born in the Netherlands in 1881, Titus was a Carmelite priest, philosophy professor, journalist, educator, and orator.
In 1935 he wrote against anti-Jewish marriage laws, which brought him to the attention of the Nazis. He later wrote that no Catholic publication could publish Nazi propaganda and still call itself Catholic; this led to more attention. He was continually followed by the Gestapo. A little later, the Nazi forces arrested him.
Titus was deported to the Dachau concentration camp where he was overworked, underfed, and beaten daily. He asked fellow prisoners to pray for the salvation of the guards.
When he could no longer work, Titus was used for medical experiments. And then when he was no longer useful for experimentation, he was murdered by lethal injection in 1942. He was 61.
Pope St. John Paul II beatified Titus in 1985.