Martyrology

In the year of salvation 1943,
in the eleventh year that the seducer had power over Germany,
on the evening of 10th November, the chaplains
Johannes Prassek, Hermann Lange and Eduard Müller
had to give their lives under the guillotine,
at the same hour with them the protestant pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink,
because, like them, he would follow no one but Christ.
They lived among us.
They loved the glory of creation, the light of truth.
They loved our land, the sea, the ancient churches of our city.
They loved above all the people who were entrusted to them.
They loved life in its fullness because they were friends of God.
When the towers of Lübeck, witnesses of past piety, collapsed,
God liked to build new towers for himself as a sign of living faith.
Out of many, he chose those we honour here.
They followed without fear and walked the path of their calling to the end.
And so they lived among us:
giving the sacraments even against the prohibition of the powerful.
They heard the confessions of those who were deprived of their homeland
and disenfranchised living among us.
They handed them the Body of the Lord and blessed their marriages.
So they walked before us:
exulting joy over parched and despairing souls,
because they had put their faith in God,
shouting the truth out loud in their sermon,
when lies and secrecy reigned,
igniting even in the dark,
rescuing without saving themselves in a burning city,
comforting even when they themselves needed comfort in prison,
praising and glorifying when they were reviled,
giving thanks when they were told they were going to die,
loving, in the midst of hate.
Now they have become the indestructible towers of our city of Lübeck,
where we look up,
under whose sign we live,
under whose protection we flee when powerful forces confront us.