Martyrs of Charity
Died: October 20 and 23, 1992
October 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the deaths of five American missionary nuns, members of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (A.S.C.), then based in rural Ruma, Illinois. They were killed in Liberia, Africa, early in that country’s gruesome 14-year civil war.
Sisters Barbara Ann Muttra and M. Joel Kolmer were the first of the five to die on October 20, 1992, ambushed in their car as they attempted to help one of their mission workers safely back to his village amid intense rebel fighting in their area. Three days later, as they agonized over the fate of their two missing sisters, Sisters Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller, and Shirley Kolmer were shot to death in front of their convent by rebel fighters supporting guerilla leader Charles Taylor, who would go on to rule Liberia. Their mutilated bodies were left where they fell.
In the end, more than a quarter of a million people would die in a brutal civil war that did not distinguish soldier from citizen. The blood of these five noble women is now part of the soil of Liberia, mingled forever with the blood of those they loved and served.
More about the five Martyrs of Charity:
5 women religious, martyred in 1992, still have a voice
Five U.S. sisters walked willingly into the line of fire during Liberia’s civil war.
Photo courtesy of Barbara Pawlikowski.
