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Sarolta Klotild Schalkház was born on May 11, 1899 in Kassa, a town that today is known as Košice in Slovakia and where her parents owned hotel. In her biographies, she is known as “Sara.”
From the time she was a child, Sarolta was known to have a mind of her own, and she did what she wanted to do. Her brother described her as a “tomboy with a strong will and mind of her own.” Sara loved to play games with the boys, including being part of the boys’ tug-of-war team.
As a young adult, Sara demonstrated a strong work ethic that sometimes led her to feel overwhelmed, and led others to think she was trying to gain attention. Among the jobs she had as a young adult included being an elementary school teacher, a bookbinder’s apprentice, and a worker in a millinery. But her biography shows that her primary passions were journalism and helping others.
As a journalist, Sara became the editor of the National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia and often wrote articles about the social injustices she saw in the world.
In 1927, Sara took a course from the Sisters of Social Service that had been founded in 1912 by Margit Slachta. Sara was fascinated by the how the Sisters of Social Service lived a life that blended prayer and social service together. Though she was fully active in social literary circles, and was at one time engaged to be married, Sara decided to join the order in Budapest, Hungary.
So, in 1929, Sara presented herself to the Sisters of Social Service in Budapest as a candidate for their order. Initially, the Sisters did not know what to do with this 30-year-old chain-smoking journalist. But they gave her a chance.
As a young Sister, Sara worked in the Catholic Charities office in Kosice, Slovakia, supervising the charity work. In addition, Sister Sara taught religion, managed a religious bookstore, and gave lectures. She also continued with her writing, publishing a periodical entitled Catholic Women. In 1930, Sara made her initial vows in the order on Pentecost.
When the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia asked for her help in organizing Catholic women, Sara’s work ethic really went into overdrive. She organized the various Catholic women’s groups into a national Catholic Women’s Association, established a National Girls’ Movement, built the first Hungarian college for working women, and served as national director of the Catholic Working Girls’ Movement. She also changed her last name to Salkaházi because she thought it sounded more Hungarian.
In Budapest, Sr. Sara also opened homes for working women, organized training courses for them, and in her spare time, wrote a play based on the life of St. Margaret of Hungary who was canonized in November of 1943.
Though Sister Sara accomplished a great deal to help others, many of the other Sisters of her order thought she was trying to draw attention to herself. As a result, they did not let her renew her temporary vows or wear the habit for a year. That did not stop Sara.
As World War II spread all through Eastern Europe, Adolf Hitler and his Nazis persecuted Jews and other people. Sister Sara was well aware of the horrors of Nazism. In fact, one of the last things Sister Sara did in her life was make a secret pledge to God in the presence of her superior to be prepared to sacrifice herself if only the other Sisters were not harmed in the war.
On December 27, 1944, members of the Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party arrested Sister Sara for sheltering Jews and helping them escape; she helped save the lives of over 100 persons. With some other prisoners, she was led to the banks of the Danube River where she was shot and killed. The killings became publicized in 1967 during the trial of some Arrow Cross Party members.
The Church beatified Sara on September 17, 2006. Blessed Sara Salkaházi’s feast day is December 27.
