Ruth Pfau was born in Leipzig in 1929. After surviving Allied bombing during the war, she escaped East Germany to study medicine in Mainz. Inspired by the example of a concentration camp survivor who had devoted her life to promoting forgiveness, she became a Catholic and then, in 1957, joined the Society of Daughters of the Heart of Mary, a missionary order. “When you receive such a calling,” she observed, “you cannot turn it down, for it is not you who has made the choice. God has chosen you for himself.”  

In 1960, while passing through Pakistan on her way to India, she visited a leper colony in Karachi. She was struck by the sight of a young man who “crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal.” At once she was inspired to make a key decision—to remain in Pakistan and to minister to those suffering from leprosy.  

Over the next thirty-five years, through a network of centers, she treated over 50,000 patients. When, in 1996, the World Health Organization declared that leprosy in Pakistan was under control, she moved on to patients with other disabilities, including victims of land mines from neighboring Afghanistan. “Not all of us can prevent a war,” she said, “but most of us can help ease sufferings—of the body and the soul.”  

Upon her death on August 10, 2017, she was hailed in Pakistan as a national hero and granted a state funeral.  

“Leading a life committed to service does protect the soul from wounds. These are the workings of God.” —Ruth Pfau