Spring-MVC does not call repository method

I am fairly new, and trying to make a query on my local database but the code throws java.lang.NullPointerException exception.

It is weird as it looks like it never calls the selected method of repository called findNamesByCat(String cat). It does not show the output of System.err.println("in repository"); that is located in this method.

    in web
    .....
    threw exception [Request processing failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException] with root cause
    java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.myproject.web.MyController.showCategoryNames(MyController.java:41)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.doInvoke(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:221)
    at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invokeForRequest(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:137)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:110)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandleMethod(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:777)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:706)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.handle(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.java:85)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:943)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:877)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:966)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:857)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:620)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:842)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:303)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:241)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:220)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:122)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:504)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:170)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:950)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:116)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:421)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1074)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:611)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:316)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Code

@Controller
public class myController {

  @Autowired 
  private MyService myService;

    @RequestMapping(value = "/cat", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String showCategoryNames(@PathVariable String cat, Model model) {
        System.err.println("in web"); //shows this
        List<Name> Names = myService.findNamesByCat(cat);
        System.err.println(Names.size()); //this is line 41
        model.addAttribute("Names", Names);
        model.addAttribute("cat", cat);
        return "cat";
    }


@Service
public class MyServiceImpl implements MyService {
    @Autowired
    private NameRepository nameRepository;

    @Override
    @Transactional(readOnly = true)
    public List<Name> findListOfNamesByCat(String cat) {
        return nameRepository.findNamesByCat(cat);
    }
}


@Repository
public class NameRepositoryImp implements NameRepository {

    @Autowired
    SessionFactory sessionFactory;

    @Override
    public List<Name> findNamesByCat(String cat){
       System.err.println("in repository"); //does not show this
        try {
            Criteria crit = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().createCriteria(
                    Name.class);
            crit.add(Restrictions.eq("category", cat));
            return crit.list();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return null;
        }

    }
}

Servlet

    <context:annotation-config />
    <mvc:annotation-driven />
    <mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.myproject" />