After her training, including a stint at Maryknoll, Jean arrived in El Salvador in July 1979,She became Caritas coordinator for the diocesan mission program. She worked in La Libertad with Dorothy Kazel, distributing food for the poor and the refugees and carrying out family education programs. She was strongly motivated by St. Francis of Assisi and by Archbishop Oscar Romero. She translated God's teachings into clothing for the poor, feeding the hungry, and caring for the wounded refugees - mainly children - who had lost what little they had..."
As for the people of La Libertad, they loved Jean Donovan and dubbed her, "St. Jean the Playful." Two weeks before she was murdered, she wrote to a friend in Connecticut: "Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness. Not mine, dear friend, not mine."
∼She was one of the four Roman Catholic missionaries who were brutally beaten, raped, & murdered by the National Guard. She was a lay missionary. The other martyrs were Ursuline Sister, Dorothy Kazel, & Maryknoll Sisters, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke.
After her training, including a stint at Maryknoll, Jean arrived in El Salvador in July 1979,She became Caritas coordinator for the diocesan mission program. She worked in La Libertad with Dorothy Kazel, distributing food for the poor and the refugees and carrying out family education programs. She was strongly motivated by St. Francis of Assisi and by Archbishop Oscar Romero. She translated God's teachings into clothing for the poor, feeding the hungry, and caring for the wounded refugees - mainly children - who had lost what little they had..."
As for the people of La Libertad, they loved Jean Donovan and dubbed her, "St. Jean the Playful." Two weeks before she was murdered, she wrote to a friend in Connecticut: "Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness. Not mine, dear friend, not mine."
∼She was one of the four Roman Catholic missionaries who were brutally beaten, raped, & murdered by the National Guard. She was a lay missionary. The other martyrs were Ursuline Sister, Dorothy Kazel, & Maryknoll Sisters, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke.
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