Born
11 May 1899 in Kassa, Hungary (modern Kosice, Slovakia)
Died
shot on 27 December 1944 by members of the Arrow Cross Party on the banks of the River Danube in Budapest, Hungary; body thrown into the Danube
Venerated
28 April 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI
Beatified
17 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at Budapest, Hungary; first non-aristocrat Hungarian to be beatified
Second of three children of Leopold and Klotild Salkahŕz, hotel owners, her father died when Sara was two. Her brother describes her as "a tomboy with a strong will and a mind of her own; when it came to play, she would always join the boys in their games or tug of war'. She began writing plays as a teenager and at the same time developed a deep prayer life. Sara received a degree and taught elementary school for one year. She gave up teaching and worked as a bookbinder. She began writing again and was active in the Hungarian literary world. As a journalist, she was Editor of the newspaper of the National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia as well as a member of the leadership of the Party.
Sara was engaged to be married, but broke it off when she realized a call to a different life. She joined the Sisters of Social Service in 1929, making her vows in 1930. Sister Sara worked at the Catholic Charities Office in Kosice. She supervised charity efforts, taught religion and lectured, continued to write, and she organized groups of lay women to help with the Church's social work. Sister Sara organized a national Catholic Women's Association. She worked herself to complete exhaustion and seeing this, her supervisors refused to allow her to take her final vows in the Community. However, Sister Sara lived the rest of her life with self-imposed restrictions as though she had taken vows.
In 1941 she was assigned to be national director of the Hungarian Catholic Working Women's Movement which had about 10,000 members across the country, and edited its magazine. Sister Sara wrote against Nazism. She continued her social work with the poor and the displaced, and started hostels to provide safe housing for working single women, and as a place to hide Jews and others being sought by the Nazis. Sister Sara started vocational schools, leadership classes for working lay people, and retreat centers for them. On 27 December 1944 Nazis surround the Working Women's Hostel, 4 Bokréta-Street, Budapest, looking for Jews. When Sister Sára arrived, she immediately introduced herself as being in charge of the house. She and five others were taken by the Nazis to the Danube, stripped naked, and murdered. The Sisters saved more than 1,000 people from the Nazis.
Sàra Schalkhàz website
