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Blessed Esther Paniagua Alonso (1949–1994) was a Spanish Augustinian Missionary Sister and nurse who gave her life among the poor and disabled in Algiers. Drawn to Arab culture and respectful of her Muslim neighbors, she refused to flee Algeria's civil war, trusting that her life already belonged to God. Shot with Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín on 23 October 1994 while going to Sunday Mass, she is honored among the Martyrs of Algeria, beatified in 2018. Her feast is kept on 23 October.
Esther Paniagua Alonso was born on 7 June 1949 in Izagre, in the province of León, Spain, the daughter of Nicasio Paniagua and Dolores Alonso. At eighteen she entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Augustinian Missionary Sisters. In August 1970 she professed perpetual vows.
Trained as a nurse, she was sent to Algiers and lived and worked in the Bab El Oued quarter. Contact with the Arab world deepened her love for its culture and her respectful sensitivity toward the Muslim faith of those she served. In the hospital she poured herself out for the sick, especially for disabled children, and became known among the people for quiet, total availability to the elderly, the handicapped, and needy families.
When Algeria's civil war intensified in 1994 and foreigners were threatened, her superiors and the Spanish ambassador urged her to leave. She refused. Asked whether she was afraid, she answered that no one could take their life because they had already given it, that nothing would happen outside God's hands, and that even if something did, they would still be in His hands. In community discernment about staying or departing she pointed her sisters to Jesus as the perfect model: He suffered, overcame trials, and reached the apparent failure of the Cross, from which springs the source of life.
On Sunday 23 October 1994, after Mass at Saint Joseph's Chapel of the Little Sisters of Jesus, only a few hundred meters from home, she and Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín were attacked. Esther was struck by three bullets to the head and died at once; Sister Caridad died hours later in hospital. Algerian authorities attributed the killing to the Armed Islamic Group. She is counted among the nineteen Catholic religious murdered in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 who remained beside the people in witness to Christ's universal love.
On 27 January 2018 Pope Francis recognized their martyrdom and authorized the beatification decree. Esther was proclaimed Blessed on 8 December 2018 in Oran, Algeria, with the Martyrs of Algeria.
May Blessed Esther intercede for us, and let us imitate today her fearless gift of life already offered to God and to the suffering neighbor.
Fuentes: Wikidata Wikipedia Causes of Saints Live web brief for Esther Paniagua Alonso; feast 23 October; died 1994; Q48760947 También listado Wikidata GCatholic
Calendario Romano General · Liturgical Calendar API
