Carol Piette

Born: September 29, 1939

Died: August 23, 1980

August 23, 1980 began as an ordinary Saturday morning for Maryknoll Sisters Carla Piette and her companion, Ita Ford. Carla set off in their jeep to deliver food to refugees from outlying areas of Chalatenango, El Salvador, torn by an undeclared, but violent, civil war, while Ita stayed behind to arrange the release of a prisoner being held by the army. This man apparently had a reputation for implicating innocent people in guerrilla activity, and when frightened refugees staying in the parish house saw the man in their midst, they told Ita they feared he was a dangerous informer.

Despite the menacing weather and approaching darkness, Carla and Ita decided for everyone’s peace of mind to drive the man to his village. Just minutes after delivering him safely, a flash flood overturned their jeep. Two seminarians accompanying them escaped, but were powerless to help in the raging waters. Trapped below by the steering wheel and drowning, Carla’s last act was to give Ita a shove that thrusted her through a narrow window.

The next day, Carla’s muddy and broken body was found nine miles downstream, but Ita was alive and, though grief-stricken, determined to continue their ministry to refugees. Aided by Sisters Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan, these “four churchwomen,” as they came to be called, would face their own deaths three months later, at the hands of the Salvadoran National Guard.

—Donna Whitson Brett and Edward T. Brett