Bl. Sára Salkaházi

Born: May 11, 1899

Died: December 27, 1944

Feast day: December 27

Salkaházi started her work life as an elementary school teacher but left for political reasons. After a stint as a bookbinder, she became a journalist for the official paper of the National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia. Salkaházi wrote articles about injustice and lived a vibrant social life, including a brief engagement.

In 1927 Salkaházi took a course from the Sisters of Social Service and was deeply attracted to their way of life that brought together the work for justice and the life of prayer. Both the sisters and Salkaházi wrestled with her desire to enter the order and the trappings of her journalistic lifestyle.

Salkaházi entered the society in Budapest in 1929. She threw herself into her ministry: teaching, writing, lecturing, and organizing Czechoslovakia’s national Catholic Women’s Association. Salkaházi survived burnout and skepticism from her superiors about her vocation and took her final vows on Pentecost in 1940, taking her motto from the Book of Isaiah: “Alleluia! Ecce ego, mitte me (Here I am, send me)!”

In 1944 she rounded the corner to find Nazi soldiers surrounding the Working Women’s Hostel that she ran. They were looking for Jews. They had come to the right place: Salkaházi was hiding close to 100 people in her network of hostels. The Nazis had four suspects and a religion teacher in custody. Rather than walking past, Salkaházi introduced herself as the director of the hostel. The Nazis took her away with the others they had arrested.

That night, the Nazis brought the six captives down to the Danube River. The soldiers made them strip naked. Salkaházi kneeled down, made the sign of the cross, and was shot dead, her body left in the river.

Salkaházi’s presence lives on, not only as Blessed but in the very earth. The World Holocaust Remembrance Center awarded “In memoriam” to Salkaházi and her fellow Sister Margaret Slachta for their heroic love, planting in the Yad Vashem garden a tree of gratitude in their honor.

—Damian Costello