diff --git a/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/DefaultValidatorFactory.java b/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/DefaultValidatorFactory.java
index 2770c48b0..d945e0a26 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/DefaultValidatorFactory.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/DefaultValidatorFactory.java
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ public class DefaultValidatorFactory implements ValidatorFactory {
     public DefaultValidatorFactory(@Inject ObjectFactory objectFactory, @Inject ValidatorFileParser parser) {
         this.objectFactory = objectFactory;
         this.validatorFileParser = parser;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void init() {
         parseValidators();
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/ValidatorFactory.java b/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/ValidatorFactory.java
index 8510fe6bb..5c3ce7ed4 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/ValidatorFactory.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/validator/ValidatorFactory.java
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
  */
 package com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator;
 
+import com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.Initializable;
+
 /**
  * ValidatorFactory
  *
@@ -225,7 +227,7 @@ package com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator;
  * @author Jason Carreira
  * @author James House
  */
-public interface ValidatorFactory {
+public interface ValidatorFactory extends Initializable {
 
     /**
      * Get a Validator that matches the given configuration.
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/SpringObjectFactoryTest.java b/core/src/test/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/SpringObjectFactoryTest.java
index 0f6e52cf0..776bd791b 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/SpringObjectFactoryTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/SpringObjectFactoryTest.java
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ public class SpringObjectFactoryTest extends XWorkTestCase {
             @Override
             public void register(ContainerBuilder builder,
                     LocatableProperties props) throws ConfigurationException {
+
+                // No registered beans during initialization; They will be registered in each test, runtime.
+                props.setProperty("applicationContextPath", "com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/emptyContext-spring.xml");
+
                 builder.factory(ObjectFactory.class, SpringObjectFactory.class);
             }
             
diff --git a/core/src/test/resources/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/emptyContext-spring.xml b/core/src/test/resources/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/emptyContext-spring.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41a2b5db9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/resources/com/opensymphony/xwork2/spring/emptyContext-spring.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+-->
+<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN//EN" "http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans.dtd">
+
+<beans>
+</beans>