Born on 22 December 1818, in Parzham, Bavaria, Johann Evangelist Birndorfer was the second youngest of twelve children born to Bartholomäus Birndorfer and Gertrude Niedermayer. Five of his siblings died in infancy. From a young age, he displayed remarkable devotion, frequently visiting the church and making pilgrimages to shrines of the Blessed Mother, often on foot and while fasting. After his mother’s death when he was fourteen and his father’s two years later, John continued to work on the family farm. Following a parish mission in 1838, he decided to pursue a religious life. At the age of thirty‑one, after distributing his inheritance, he was admitted as a lay brother among the Capuchin friars in 1849. He made his profession in 1852. During his novitiate in Laufen, he was given the religious name Conrad, in honour of Conrad of Piacenza.

Immediately after his profession, Brother Conrad was assigned to the friary of St. Anna in Altötting, which served the Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting, the national shrine of Bavaria. He was given the demanding role of porter, a position he held for forty‑one years until his death. He often deprived himself of sleep to dedicate time to prayer in the friars’ oratory or the church. His spirituality was simple and profound, centered on love for God and suffering, as he expressed in his writings. He often used phrases like “In Gottes Namen” (In the name of God) and “Wie der liebe Gott es will” (As the good God wills).

He died on 21 April 1894, in the friary where he had served for over four decades.

St. Conrad’s heroic virtues and the miracles attributed to him led to his beatification by Pope Pius XI in 1930. Four years later, in 1934, the same pope canonized him, inscribing his name in the list of saints. His feast day is celebrated on 21 April.

St. Conrad of Parzham is the patron saint of the Mid‑America Province of Capuchin Friars and, since 1984, also the patron saint of the Diocese of Passau. The St. Augustine Province of Capuchins in Pittsburgh also considers him a special patron.