Esther Paniagua Alonso was a Spanish nun, born in

Izagre Izagre () is a village and municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. Population According to the 2010 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclea ...

( León,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

), on June 7, 1949, daughter of Nicasio Paniagua and Dolores Alonso, and member of the congregation of Augustinian missionaries. As a nurse, she was sent to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

where she worked in Bab El Oued, in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

. She was murdered in Algiers on October 23, 1994 with sister Caridad Álvarez Martín. On January 27, 2018,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

recognized the martyrdom of Esther Paniagua Alonso among the martyrs of Algeria and authorized the signing of the

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

decree. She was proclaimed

blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

on December 8, 2018.

Biography

At 18 years old, Esther Paniagua entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Augustinian Missionary Sisters. In August 1970, she pronounced her perpetual vows. As a nurse, she was sent to

. The contact with the Arab world attracted her and refined her sensitivity to Arab culture and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

religion. She worked in the hospital where she gave herself totally to the sick, especially to disabled children. In 1994, when faced with the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War ( ar, rtl=yes, الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ الجَزَائِرِيَّةُ, al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhlīyah al-Jazāʾirīyah) was a civil war in Algeria fought between the Algerian government and various Is ...

, when asked if she was afraid of the situation she replied : "No one can take our life because we have already given it. Nothing will happen to us since we are in the hands of God ... and if something happens to us, we are still in His hands".Martin McGee, 2008 Despite the solicitations of her hierarchy and of the Spanish ambassador to Algeria, she refused to leave the country. Thus, during the community reflection to make discernment between the choice to stay or to leave, she said to her sisters "At this moment, for me, the perfect model is Jesus: he suffered, he had to overcome difficulties and ended in the failure of the cross, from which springs the source of life." On October 23, 1994, as they were returning home after the celebration Sunday

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

at St. Joseph's Chapel of the

Little Sisters of Jesus The Little Sisters of Jesus are a community of Catholic religious sisters inspired by the life and writings of Charles de Foucauld, founded by Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus (Madeleine Hutin). Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus 1898 - 1989 ...

, a few hundred meters away, she was killed with three bullets to the head, and died instantly. Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín who accompanied her died a few hours later at the hospital. The Algerian authorities consider that the attack was due to the

Armed Islamic Group The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from french: Groupe Islamique Armé; ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, al-Jamāʿa l-ʾIslāmiyya l-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian gove ...

Beatification

Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso is one of nineteen Catholic religious murdered in Algeria between 1994 and 1996. On January 27, 2018, the Holy See recognized the

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...

of Sister Esther and decided to beatify her., with the martyrs of Algeria. The

ceremony took place on December 8, 2018 in Algeria, in

Oran Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

References

Bibliography

*Martin McGee, ''Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People'', Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press, 2008, 203 pages (), p. 46-52. {{DEFAULTSORT:Paniagua Esther Victims of Islamic terrorism 20th-century Spanish nuns Beatifications by Pope Francis Spanish beatified people 1949 births 1994 deaths Venerated Catholics