Sister M. Klementin Zuggo
Daughter of Divine Charity
1915-1945

 

Born on 1. 28. 1915 Brigitta asked to become an FDC at the early age of 12. Upon a refusal she didn't give up and finally the "little baby" entered in 1928 for six-year candidacy. Following her profession, Sr. Klementin's first mission was in Zirc, and the second and last in Rakospalota, a suburb of Budapest. She was a prayerful and zealous religious. She had not been an exceptional student but she was very outstanding as a teacher. Her activity in school was incredible. She prepared her little charges for their first holy Communion with great joy and zeal. She was an excellent organizer; in the midst of the children she was a child, a mother, an apostle and they loved her even though she was a strict educator when necessary.

Sister was an introvert and didn't show what was going on in her soul. However, her notes and contact with her spiritual director illustrated the depth of her spiritual life. She always appreciated her vocation but in her last hours, when attacked by the ferocious and rough Russian soldier, she seemed to defend it and her purity, with a lion's courage.

In 1945, when the advancing Russian troops made a battleground of Budapest, only Sr. Bernardin Pap, the superior, and Sr. Klementin remained in the house which was soon to be bombed. In the refuge of a cellar, the intruding Russian soldiers, hurled themselves on the two young sisters. In the struggle that followed sister, trying to escape, moved toward the exit. She set her feet firmly, clutching the railing of the staircase determined not to move from there; it seemed she was the stronger and the victor. Finally when she was combating her fiercest attacker, she so hit him in the face with her reception crucifix that the outpouring blood blinded him. Whereupon, in his rage, the Russian twisted his victim's neck.

Sister's lifeless body lay for days among the corpses. As the skirmishes diminished, the city offered a grave of honor for sister's burial place. None of the sisters were able to attend the funeral because of the ongoing battle in the city. As for the provincial house, the heartrending news reached them only weeks later.

“Into the life of every religious once there come a time, that moment, when she must suffer for her faith, vocation, purity. I fought the first two without any outside help. God only knows how difficult it was. I tremble when I consider that the third is yet to come. Must that also happen?” (Taken from her last letter to her spiritual director) This moment arrived accompanied by the thundering sounds of Stalin’s guns. By flickering candle light in the depth of a dark cellar quivering whispered prayers… the gate is locked! Thumping feet beating hearts hoarse voices “Your watches, Jewellery” A wild hand grabs her, drags her out and a rough grip grabs her… The tender pigeon dies… Lord, have mercy. On frozen white snow the dead are strewn among them our sister already for eight days. Then they buried her, “her saddened disciples” for the city assigned her only a potter’s lot… All this happened in the year of Our Lord 1945 at Rakospalota (Hungary).