In her vocational journey as a Daughter of Charity, Blesssed Lindalva Justo de Oliveira was sent to Salvador in Bahia, Brazil to a shelter for the elderly called “Dom Pedro II”. Like Marguerite Naseau, the good country girl at the time of Saint Vincent (the “first Daughter of Charity”), Sister Lindalva served with joy and simplicity. She once declared: “Working with the elderly makes me very glad and happy.” In the photo we see her at work, painting a bed frame at the home for the elderly. Learn more about her life, martyrdom, and beatification: click here for resources on vinFormation.

From the official Vatican biography…

“On 9 April 1993, Good Friday, Sr Lindalva took part in the parish Way of the Cross at 4:30 in the morning. By 7 a.m. she was back at work to prepare and serve breakfast as she did every day. As she served coffee from behind a table, Augusto approached and thrust a fishmonger’s knife above her collar-bone.

Sinking to the ground, she cried “God protect me” several times. Patients ran for cover. Enveloped in an insane rapture while holding up her body, Augusto stabbed her 44 times shouting, “I should have done this sooner!”.

He then suddenly became calm, sat down on a bench, wiped the knife on his trousers, threw it on the table and exclaimed: “She did not want me!”, and turning to the doctor, said, “You can call the police, I will not run away; I did what had to be done”.

The next day, Holy Saturday, Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves, O.P., Primate of Brazil, celebrated the 39-year-old Sister’s funeral and commented: “A few years were enough for Sr Lindalva to crown her Religious life with martyrdom”.