Four US Women Religious Martyrs
On December 2nd 1980, four Catholic missionaries from the United States working in El Salvador were raped and murdered by five members of the El Salvador National Guard. They were Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Cleveland Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan. This was nine months after the assassination of Archbishop Romero and the Salvadoran civil war was underway.
Watch a short documentary from the New York Times about these four martyrs.
You can watch a fuller documentary - Roses in December - about the four missionaries, focussing on Jean Donovan, below.
Dorothy and Jean were based at a mission in La Libertad and were deeply involved in humanitarian relief activities. They drove to El Salvador International Airport on the evening of December 2nd to pick up Maura and Ita returning from a conference in Nicaragua. Five National Guardsmen, out of uniform, stopped their vehicle after they left the airport. They were taken to a relatively isolated spot, near Santiago Nonualco, where they were beaten, raped and murdered by the soldiers.
Villagers living nearby had seen the women's white van go by and then heard machine gun fire followed by single shots. They saw five men flee the scene in the white van, with the lights on and the radio blaring. On December 4th, their shallow grave was exhumed.
The four martyrs are remembered at the memorial site where their bodies were found. Today, the chapel and markers are protected by the El Salvador government and the site is considered national patrimony.
Scroll to the bottom of this page to download and read the text of the Reflection by Therese Osborne given during the Mass celebrated in London in 2010 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the deaths in El Salvador of the missionaries: Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan.
Their 40th Anniversary
In December 2020, the lives and witness of four missionaries martyred in El Salvador forty years ago were remembered throughout the world.
From Rome to New York, and from London to the Diocese of Chalatenango (image right, Rhina Guidos) - where the missionaries lived, served and died, services were held to remember Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke and Jean Donovan.
During his General Audience on 2 December 2020, forty years to the day that the missionaries were killed, Pope Francis prayed for them.
"Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of four missionaries killed in El Salvador... On the 2nd of December in 1980 they were kidnapped, raped and killed by a group of paramilitary forces. They were offering their services during the civil war and they were bringing food and medicine to those who had to flee, especially to the families that were the poorest. These women lived their faith with great generosity. They are an example for all of us to become faithful missionary disciples."
That evening in Rome, Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ celebrated Mass to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of their martyrdom, with members of Religious orders at the Oratory of St Francis Xavier del Caravita, organised by the Caravita Community with the JPIC Commission of USG and UISG. In his homily, Cardinal Czerny recalled their humble work with the marginalised people of El Salvador:
"Jean, Dorothy, Ita and Maura were martyrs at a local, humble level, in their work with the poor, with the displaced, with the grieving. They witnessed to a loving God whose preferential love is for the poor and marginalized."
You can read the text of the homily by clicking here.
In London, the Conference of Religious of England and Wales, Pax Christi, CAFOD and the Romero Trust joined together for a service to remember the women martyrs of El Salvador. Led by Fr Paul Smyth cmf, Sr Anne Griffin SSHJM and Pat Gaffney, you can watch the service below. At the start, Clare Dixon from CAFOD and the Romero Trust gave the context of El Salvador at the time of the missionaries' martyrdom.
Sr Gemma Simmonds cj gave a reflection on the women martyrs of El Salvador which can be viewed in the video below. The text of the address can be read here.
