Blessed Sára Salkaházi

Life story

Sára Salkaházi, born Sarolta Klotild Schalkház, was born on 11 May 1899 in Kassa, now Košice in Slovakia, into a well-off family. She trained as a teacher and then worked in bookbinding, millinery and journalism; her writing often dealt with the social problems of the poor and marginalised.

In 1929, aged thirty, she joined the Sisters of Social Service, although the congregation at first had reservations about her background, and she took her first vows at Pentecost 1930. She chose a line from the prophet Isaiah as her motto: Here I am, send me.

During the Second World War, as Hungary's Nazi-aligned government persecuted Jews, she opened working girls' homes in Budapest to shelter Jewish women and children, disguising them and providing forged papers. The sources credit her with helping about a hundred people.

On 27 December 1944 Arrow Cross members arrested her together with the people she was sheltering, after a woman working in the house had informed on them. She could have fled but returned. They were shot on the bank of the Danube in Budapest, and her body was never recovered. Yad Vashem recognised her as Righteous Among the Nations in 1969. Pope Benedict XVI had her beatified on 17 September 2006 in Budapest. She has not been canonised; her feast is 27 December.

Works and witness

• Worked as a teacher, bookbinder, milliner and journalist
• Joined the Sisters of Social Service in 1929, first vows in 1930
• Sheltered about a hundred Jews in Budapest
• Shot by the Arrow Cross on 27 December 1944
• Recognised by Yad Vashem in 1969; beatified in 2006

Saints from the same country

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Stephen of Hungary, Saint Ladislaus of Hungary

References

• Modern Day Saint, Blessed Sára Salkaházi (moderndaysaint.com)
• Wikipedia, Sára Salkaházi (arrest, shooting and beatification details)

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.