Peru: Remembering Sr Joan Sawyer on her 40th anniversary

Sr Joan Sawyer

The Cross still stands there, bleak and bare near the main road to Lurigancho Prison in Lima, Peru. 'No Mataras', the inscription reads. 'You shall not kill'. People come to stand or kneel there, to bring flowers, to pray. But this week there are special services too as Sr Joan Sawyer, a Columban sister from Northern Ireland, who ministered to prisoners in Lurigancho, is remembered 40 years after her killing, at the age of 51, on 14 December 1983.

On that day, she was involved in a hostage crisis, which ended with local security forces and police shooting prisoners and hostages as they tried to leave the prison. After hours of negotiation the authorities finally allowed them to drive out in an ambulance but it was fired upon and Joan was one of those killed.

Conditions in Lurigancho prison in 1983 were dire. It was a sad, depressing, foul-smelling, unhealthy place for prisoners but also for their families who visited them. Joan was a much-loved pastoral visitor, serving hundreds of prisoners. She had access to two cell blocks, each with 350 men aged between 18 and 30 years old. She learned their names and the addresses of their families, the reasons for their imprisonment and whether they had legal aid. Joan prayed with them and helped them prepare liturgies for the weekly Mass.

She was a familiar figure in the office of the Department of Justice in Lima where she went on behalf of prisoners and visited their families, acting as messenger between them.

On the fateful morning of 14 December 1983, when she visited the prison, she had two important messages with her, which the mothers of two of the prisoners had brought to her house early that morning. One was a small plastic jar of food, the other a small sum of money to help pay for legal aid. Having signed herself 'IN' in the small office used by the chaplains and the pastoral workers, Joan did her rounds and delivered her messages. She was leaving the cell blocks when she stopped at the chaplaincy office. When Joan entered she found three Marist Sisters, two women who had come to help with Christmas entertainment and nine prisoners crowded into the room.

The nine prisoners had decided to break free of prison or die in the attempt and Joan had inadvertently stumbled upon their attempted escape. She did not fear them, but all the hostages were worried about the response of the guards and police.

Columban sisters still remember the quiet, gentle woman and the prisoners who died with her. Some were in Peru at the time and remember events well. When Joan's body arrived at the church after her killing, it had been adorned with flowers by local people. At her funeral a large banner hung above the chapel altar: "I was in prison and you visited me," (Matt. 25:36), "There's no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends." (John 15:13) The prisoners collected what little money they had to buy paint for a mural of Joan on a public wall in the city. Each year an anniversary Mass is offered.

The prison library was named after her, as was a road, and many little girls locally were called Juanita after her. Joan's name has been given to a Mother's Club, to a Retreat Centre and a Centre for school leavers, and flowers are regularly placed at the large wooden cross which marks the spot where the fatal shooting happened. This cross has become a place of pilgrimage for many whose family members are in prison and those struggling with the crosses of oppression and poverty.