By Marnie McAllister, Record Editor
Sister of Charity of Nazareth Paula Merrill and School Sister of St. Francis Margaret Held, nurse practitioners serving in Durant, Miss., were found murdered in the home they shared on Aug. 25.
Coworkers asked the police to check on the two women Aug. 25 when they failed to arrive at the clinic where they worked in rural Mississippi, according to a statement from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCNs). The statement, released late in the afternoon of Aug. 25, said they know little else but that an investigation is underway. In the meantime, the statement said, the sisters “have come together in prayer.”
“SCN President Susan Gatz asks that all, ‘pray in gratitude for the precious lives of Sisters Paula and Margaret … they served the poor so well,’ ” the statement said. Sister Gatz added, “Because we are Gospel women, please also pray for the perpetrators.”
Sister Merrill, a native of Massachusetts, and Sister Held, whose community is based in Milwaukee, served at the Lexington Medical Clinic in Lexington, Miss. They saw thousands of patients each year from around the impoverished Holmes County, Miss., area. Sister Merrill served in health-care ministry in Mississippi for more than 30 years and worked at the Lexington clinic since 2010.
“These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine. It’s so senseless,” Franciscan Father Greg Plata told a reporter on the scene, according to a statement from the Diocese of Jackson, Miss. Father Plata serves at St. Thomas Church in Lexington, Miss.
In a video about Sister Merrill’s ministry, produced by the SCNs recently, the SCN describes her life in service to the people of Holmes County, where poverty affects 60 percent of its children.
“I have been so edified by the faith of the people I have cared for,” she says in the video. “They challenge me; they inspire me.”
The sisters acknowledged in the video, “We make a difference in people’s lives.” And one of Sister Merrill’s coworkers featured in the video affirmed that.
“If you need help, she’s going to help you,” says the coworker who isn’t identified. “She’ll explain your diagnosis. … She helps all our people in the community and she helped me and my child, who has diabetes.”
Paula Merrill, SCN from Sisters of Charity of Nazareth on Vimeo.
Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, who released a statement late Aug. 25, said the sisters “leave a legacy of dedication to their consecrated life and deep compassion for those they served.”
He asked the faithful to “join me in praying for the repose of the souls of Sr. Paula and Sr. Margaret and for their families and religious communities. May they rest in peace.”
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth also ask for prayers in their statement: “Please keep the families and religious communities of Sisters Paula and Margaret in your prayers, as well as those who work at the medical clinic where the Sisters were in ministry and the clinic’s many clients, and those involved in the investigation. Please also keep the community of Durant in prayer as well.”
I was a Vista volunteer in Holmes County Mississippi in 1978. For a short time I lived with some Catholic sisters in Lexington. I always want to thank them for taking me in when I needed help. I can’t remember their names but I’ll never forget the kindness