Ruth Pfau (1929–2017)

Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau was born in Leipzig, Germany on September 9, 1929. During World War II, she barely survived an Allied bombing, which severely damaged her home. She was inspired to become a doctor when her baby brother became ill and died. She escaped from the Soviet Occupation Zone in mostrar mais 1948 and studied gynecology at the University of Mainz. After meeting an elderly Christian concentration camp survivor who had devoted the rest of her life to preaching love and forgiveness, Pfau converted to Catholicism and joined the Society of Daughters of the Heart of Mary in 1957. In 1960, she was waylaid in Pakistan by a passport foul-up and decided to visit a leper colony in Karachi. In 1961, she arrived in Vellore, India for training and then returned to Pakistan to work with the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center. Once leprosy was declared under control, the center also focused on tuberculosis, blindness, and other diseases and on disabilities. She wrote several books including To Light a Candle. She died on August 10, 2017 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos