A Catholic sister looks on during a ceremony of beatification of five catholic nuns brutally murdered during World War II. in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011. After decades of investigation and proof gathering, sisters of the order of "Daughters of the Love of God": Marija Jula Ivanisevic of Croatia, Marija Berchmana Leidenix of Austria, Marija Krizina Bojanc of Slovenia, Marija Antonija Fabjan of Slovenia and Marija Bernadeta Banja of Croatia were bona fide by a decree of Pope Benedict XVI. In 1942, the five nuns were taken away from their monastery in Pale near Sarajevo, the monastery was burned and they were imprisoned and tortured by Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces until they were killed in prison in Eastern Bosnian town of Gorazde, later that year.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Five nuns who died in the custody of Serb extremists during World War II have been beatified at a ceremony that attracted thousands in Bosnia — the last formal step before possible sainthood.
Jula Ivanisevic, Berchmana Leidenix, Krizina Bojanc, Antonija Fabjan and Bernadeta Banja helped the poor regardless of religion in the majority Serb village of Pale. Serb soldiers burned their convent in late 1941.
The nuns were held in military barracks near the east Bosnian town of Gorazde. The soldiers beat and tried to rape them. The women jumped out of the second-floor windows, and soldiers later stabbed to death those still alive.
Pope Benedict XVI sent Cardinal Angelo Amato from the Vatican to lead Saturday's ceremony in Sarajevo. Up to 20,000 people attended.
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