Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sister Dorothy Stang (This post is rated PG)

Sister Dorothy Stang was a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur order, whose main charism is to provide education to the poor. Born on July 31, 1931 in Dayton, Ohio, Sister Stang traveled to Brazil where she fought against nefarious gangs who were attempting to crookedly take ownership of land that rightfully belonged to peasant workers. She was also educating those same peasants how to farm their lands without deforestation. Leaders of the gangs who were intimidating the peasant farmers had her murdered on February 12, 2005 because of the attention she was generating to her cause and subsequently to them.

The first video is an excerpt from the documentary They Killed Sister Dorothy, and you hear the voices and see the demonstrations of her supporters, as well as the bullshit of those who unsuccessfully tried to tarnish her image as an "agent of the North American government." The second video also discusses the murder of Sister Stang, and features interviews with members of her community.







I failed to mention the obvious: what upsets me most about her story is the fact that these cowardly murderers had the audacity to gun down a peaceful, elderly woman who - on top of being all those things - was unarmed. All she had with her at the time of her murder was a Bible.

9 comments:

Melody K said...

She died a martyr's death; I am interested to see how the movie treats her life and death.

Adrienne said...

I second Melody...

Shirley said...

She died a martyr; it will be interesting to see if there are any miracles attributed to her and if there is a cause for sainthood.

Tracy said...

She is a martyr indeed.

Terry Nelson said...

Stunning!

Terry Nelson said...

If it ever hits the fan for us - I would wish all of us to be together.

Tom in Vegas said...

Amen Terry!

Kirk said...

This is very similiar to the martyrdom of an Australian nun in the 1990s... You can read about her here if this link thing works... http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/01/aug/12/story_20.html

Tom in Vegas said...

Cousin Kirk-

Thank you for bringing this wonderful human being to my attention. I will someday do a post on this Australian martyr.

How sad!! How barbaric!!