Last Friday, Sept. 2, Creighton remembered the life and works of two nuns slain in Mississippi. Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68 and nurse practitioners, were killed Aug. 25.

Their deaths were uncovered when they failed to report for work at a clinic in Lexington, Mississippi, where they provided medical care to those who could not afford it.

The act that took the nuns’ lives was described as “a senseless and bloody murder,” by the Rev. Gergory J. O’Meara who presided over last Friday’s service at St. John’s that was attended by both nuns’ orders, students and faculty.

Rodney Earl Sanders of Kosciusko, Mississippi is charged with two counts of capital murder in correlation to the two nuns, according to Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain. Sanders confessed to the killings but has yet to give any reasons behind them, according to Holmes County police reports.

While capital punishment is legal in Mississippi, both of the nuns’ orders have collectively released a statement asking that Held and Merill’s work to abolish the death penalty be recognized and that, “everyone involved be kept in prayer.”

Held had a special connection to Creighton, studying nursing in the 1980s before becoming a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee. She was a member of the order for 49 years. 

Dean of the College of Nursing, Catherine Todoro spoke during the mass saying both Sisters exemplified the Jesuit Values being women for and with others.

While O’Meara said that ruthless acts such as this can seem as though chaos is resurgent he reminded attendees at the Mass that “God’s light shines in the darkness.”

Wakes and visitations for Held and Merrill have been held across the Midwest, including Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Jackson, Mississippi.