Her faithfulness paid off as she received permission to renew her vows some time later. These decisions hurt her deeply.īut Sára accepted these hardships and made up her mind to remain faithful to her calling for the sake of the One who called her. When several novices left the Society, Sára also considered leaving, especially since her superiors would not allow her to renew her temporary vows (she was deemed 'unworthy'), nor permit her to wear the habit for a year. In one year alone, she received 15 different assignments, from cooking to teaching at the Social Training Centre, all of which exhausted her physically and spiritually. She thus began giving leadership courses and publishing manuals. The Bishops of Slovakia then entrusted her with the organization of the National Girls' Movement. In addition, she wrote, edited and published a Catholic women's journal, managed a religious bookstore, supervised a shelter for the poor and taught. Her first assignment was to her native Kassa (which at the end of World War I had been incorporated into Czechoslovakia) to organize the work of Catholic Charities subsequently, she was sent to Komarom, for the same task. She chose as her motto Isaiah's 'Here I am! Send me!' (Is 6: 8b). Following her initial rebuff, she quit smoking - with great difficulty - and was admitted to the Society at age 30, in 1929. She became a member of the Christian Socialist Party and then worked as editor of that party's newspaper, focusing on women's social problems.Īfter she had come into contact with the Sisters of Social Service, Sára felt a strong call to join them. She learned that trade, then went to work in a millinery shop, all the while continuing to write articles for newspapers.

To widen her horizon and experience first-hand what discrimination meant, Sára became a bookbinder's apprentice, where she was given the hardest and dirtiest work. In the classroom, she learned through her students about the social problems of the poor, which she publicized via newspaper articles. But 16 years later, she became the Society's first martyr, at the hands of the Nazis.įun-loving and intelligent, Sára was born into a well-to-do family at Kassa-Kosice, Upper Hungary, now Slovak territory, on. The Sisters of that new congregation, founded in 1923 by Margit Slachta and devoted to charitable, social and women's causes, were reluctant to accept this chain-smoking, successful woman journalist, and she was at first turned away from their Motherhouse in Budapest. Teacher, bookbinder, milliner, journalist: this was the resume of Sára Salkaházi when she applied to join the Sisters of Social Service, a Hungarian religious society that today is also active in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and the Philippines. Martyr, Member of the Sisters of Social Service

Sara cross joining hands