The Islamic State militants who killed the four Missionaries of Charity in Yemen earlier this month “tied them up, shot them in the head and smashed their heads,” according to an eye witness who escaped the killing.
One of the nuns said she believes that the crushing of the head “has some evil connection” with the biblical passage that says “she will crush the head of the serpent,” referring to Satan. “Some kind of mockery or evil meaning,” she said.
In a handwritten report, Sister Sally, the superior of the small community who managed to survive the attack, informed her religious higher-ups of the details of the incident. The report was later shared with all the members of the Missionaries of Charity throughout the world.
The manuscript states that on the morning of the attack, five Ethiopian Christians ran to alert the sisters working at the home for the elderly in Aden that “ISIS was here to kill them.”
Laywomen working at the home reportedly screamed “Don’t kill the sisters! Don’t kill the sisters!” but the terrorists ignored their plea and killed the laywomen as well.
Two of the murdered nuns were from Rwanda; one was from India, and the other from Kenya. The assailants killed twelve other people along with the religious sisters.
The jihadists apparently had thoroughly studied their quarry, knowing ahead of time where they would be at the hour of the attack. After killing four sisters, the gunmen searched in vain for the fifth, Sister Sally.
“The ISIS men were already getting to the convent, so she went into the refridgerator (sic) room since the door was open,” the report reads. “These ISIS men were everywhere searching for her as they knew they were 5. At least 3 times they came in the fridgerator room. She did not hide but remained standing behind the door — they never saw her. This is miraculous.”
The letter reports that a neighbor saw the terrorists abduct a priest that had been living at the institute, Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, taking him away in their car.
The manuscript corroborates the anti-Christian motivation behind the attack, and reports that the terrorists “smashed and destroyed” all the religious articles they could find: the tabernacle, altar, crucifix, statues, Bibles and prayer books.
The Missionaries of Charity were “the only Christian presence” in Aden, the letter states, “and ISIS wants to get rid of all Christianity.”
After the attack, Sister Sally wanted to stay on in the home, but police forced her to leave, saying they believed that the terrorists would return to “finish the job,” by killing the fifth nun.
The day after the slaughter, Pope Francis called the attack an act of “diabolical violence,” in a message of condolence for the victims of the carnage and their families.
The Pope also said that the four nuns—Sister Anselm, Sister Reginette, Sister Judith, and Sister Marguerite—were “martyrs of today” who “gave their blood for the Church.”
The Vatican announced this week that the founder of the sisters’ order, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, will be canonized at Saint Peter’s next September 4.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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