Anna Schäffer

About Anna Schäffer

Anna Schäffer was a German laywoman who offered her suffering for the conversion of sinners and became known as the "Lily of Mindelstetten." From a poor family, Anna worked as a maid hoping to earn money to enter religious life as a missionary. At age 19, while working in a large house, she fell into a vat of boiling laundry lye, suffering horrific burns to her legs. Despite multiple surgeries, the burns never healed properly, leaving her an invalid confined to bed for the remaining 25 years of her life in constant pain. Anna accepted her suffering as her "cloister," offering it for the conversion of sinners and souls in purgatory. She experienced mystical visions of Christ, Mary, and her guardian angel. Anna received the stigmata (which bled on Fridays), and reportedly performed miracles of healing for others while remaining sick herself. She counseled many visitors seeking spiritual guidance through her "sickbed apostolate." Her patience in suffering, mystical gifts, and intercessory power attracted wide attention. She died in 1925. Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2012 as a model of redemptive suffering.