Short biography of Centa Segerer
On 31 October 1906, a daughter was born to Mathias and Anna Segerer, who lived in Munich-Giesing. She was the eleventh of twelve children and was baptised with the name Kreszentia Josefa in the local parish church of St. Cross. The name Centa later becomes the abbreviated form. The father is a shoemaker by trade. The family has to change their home several times. In the end they live close to the parish church of the new parish of St. Franziskus in Untergiesing, which was built in 1922. During the First World War, Centa attended a simple primary schools. Afterwards she attended private courses to learn how to care for babies and children. At the same time she learns to play the violin, which she enjoys very much.
At her First Communion and even more intimately at her Confirmation in 1918, she said a clear "Yes, Father!" to God's will. From then on, these words of assent to God's will shaped the rest of her life and became, as it were, her life's programme. After the end of the war, her mother temporarily fell seriously ill. During this difficult time, Centa, who is only 13 years old, becomes a great support for the whole family. She takes care of almost the entire household. In her youth, she likes to go out into nature, where she wants to be alone with God, where she also feels the presence of God. She spends her holidays on a neighbouring farm and helps with the agricultural work.
At the age of 15 ½, she has to endure a serious neck operation without anaesthesia - probably because of her heart problems. Strength for this gives her the self-sacrificing opinion "For the priests!" Further illnesses followed. She was sent to Bad Tölz to recuperate. On the Calvary there, she notices how the larger-than-life figure of Jesus on the cross suddenly comes to life before her eyes. She sees Jesus in his agony on the cross. This experience shakes her soul deeply and she decides to sacrifice even more to this Saviour, especially for the priests. Later, she even sacrifices her beloved violin for one of them and henceforth renounces making music. At the age of 18, a five-year period of mental suffering begins for her. Her soul is plunged into darkness. Only then does it become light again and the joy of life returns.
During the following years, Centa repeatedly has to suffer various illnesses, which she offers up to God, especially for the priests. Nevertheless, she feels the desire to enter a convent, but she is rejected everywhere. At the age of 25, she finds employment - albeit only for a short time - first in a home for mentally handicapped children in Ecksberg near Altmühldorf and then in the municipal children's asylum in Munich, which is located on a hill near the Maria-Hilf Church. During this time, however, Jesus makes it clear to her that he has called her to suffer. So from 1931 onwards she stays with her family permanently and continues to help out in the family household to the best of her ability. However, she continues to be extremely sickly and is repeatedly dependent on medical help.
Most likely at Christmas 1936, Centa showed the stigmata of Jesus Christ, which she kept until her death in 1953. Even today, contemporary witnesses of these extraordinary marks are still alive. For about 16 ½ years from this point on, she suffers the Passion of Jesus week after week - with few exceptions - starting with the agony on the Mount of Olives, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the Way of the Cross and finally the painful crucifixion on Golgotha. Throughout, she lies in her bed with heavily bleeding wounds, finally lapses into agony on Friday afternoon, becomes increasingly pale and dies. As if bled out and with the signs of death, Centa then lies lifeless in her bed. After this mystical death, however, life always miraculously returns after a certain time. During all these passion years, she lives only on Holy Communion, which the priests bring her daily if possible. Centa cannot leave her flat during this time because she becomes immobile outside it. She suffers greatly from this confinement, but she also recognises God's holy will in it. Possibly God wants to protect her in this way from being seized by the anti-God Nazi regime.
God's adversary tries several times in vain to discourage Centa and dissuade her from her path. In his rage, he therefore repeatedly inflicts painful blows on her. She always regards these attacks as admissions of her heavenly Father, whom she childlike trusts. Jesus encourages her to follow him on his way of the cross and promises her heaven several times, the beauty of which she is allowed to see repeatedly. She can hardly put into words the glory she has seen. Mary, the Mother of God, is her everlasting protector and comforter. In addition, several saints appear to her, especially St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionist Order, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, also a saint of this order, St. Francis, St. Elizabeth and other saints or blessed. Her guardian angel saves Centa's life in some life-threatening situations.
A special gift of grace for Centa is bilocation, i.e. the gift of being physically present in two different places at the same time. During the war, this enables her to assist priests and soldiers on the war front and sometimes even save their lives. She stands by some soldiers as they die and takes over their death throes for them. Many poor souls come to her for help. During the time of the air raids on Munich, which she mostly foresaw and then had to experience and suffer, she daily offered her own life to God so that He might spare her beloved city of Munich, indeed her entire Bavarian homeland. She awaits her return to God with great longing and joy, and she promises from heaven to help those who call upon her: "Let there be a gentle dew that falls on the afflicted."
On Friday 15 May 1953, God calls his servant to himself. The funeral by the city priest of St Francis takes place on the following Tuesday, the Requiem Mass on Wednesday. Centa Segerer's grave is in the Munich East Cemetery at section 36 b (wall grave with red-brown sandstone cross). After her death, many letters of petition and thanks from different parts of the world arrived at her former address in Munich. She has already become a heavenly helper to many.
Publisher: Circle of Friends of Centa Segerer
Source: "Akten Centa Segerer", Archive of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
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