On this day, December 2, 1980, four American missionaries—Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan—were brutally raped and murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
The missionaries had been working to support the poor and oppressed during El Salvador’s violent civil war. Their deaths brought international attention to the human rights abuses committed by government forces during the conflict and highlighted the dangers faced by those who stood in solidarity with marginalized communities.