Slovakia celebrates the memory of Veronika Racková, the nun and doctor killed 10 years ago in South Sudan

by Bohumil Petrík

Bánov (Fides News Agency) – “I cannot leave the people of Sudan because I love them”: This is what Sister Veronika Racková, doctor and missionary, said about herself before South Sudanese soldiers shot her at a checkpoint on May 16, 2016 (see Fides, 21/5/2016).
Ten years after her death on May 20, 2016, in a hospital in Nairobi, the memory of her witness remains vivid, especially in her homeland. Many hope that the beatification process for the Slovak nun will begin soon.

The Apostolic Nuncio to Slovakia, Archbishop Nicola Girasoli, celebrated a Mass on Sunday, May 17, in Bánov, the birthplace of Sister Veronika Racková, marking the tenth anniversary of her murder. In his homily during the Mass at the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Archbishop Girasoli recalled that Sister Veronika's witness made her a model of missionary commitment. The Nuncio expressed his hope that everyone, beginning with her fellow sisters and those who knew her in Slovakia and South Sudan, will contribute "so that the beatification process can begin, because her witness of Christian life is beautiful, and today's celebration helps us to make further progress in this direction."

Veronika Racková was born in 1958 in Bánov, a town then part of Czechoslovakia. She was a doctor and a member of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Servants of the Holy Spirit. As a missionary and doctor, she initially worked in Ghana and later in Sudan, the part of the country that declared its independence during her time as a missionary, giving rise to South Sudan. The Slovakian nun headed St. Bakhita’s Medical Center in Yei. According to news reported at the time by Fides, Sister Veronika received an urgent emergency call around midnight on May 16 regarding a woman with complications during childbirth. The nun accompanied the patient by ambulance to Harvester’s Health Center, a facility better equipped to care for mothers and newborns. On the way back, she was shot by armed men, soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA, the former guerrilla movement that seized power after the country's independence proclaimed in 2011). Sister Veronika was immediately taken to a hospital in Nairobi, where she died of her injuries several days later.

In her last interview, Sister Veronika recounted how, before the founding of the state of South Sudan, ecumenical prayers had been offered for the success of the independence referendum: “Not only the Church in Sudan and Africa participated, but the whole world. My fellow sisters in the village of Ivanka pri Dunaji in Slovakia translated the prayer for the referendum into Slovak, so that they, too, could pray in Slovak.” As the security situation in the country deteriorated, the religious order was asked whether they wished to return home. “We considered it, each nun individually and then as a community,” Veronika explained in the interview, “and we decided to stay because we felt that we were in the right place at the right time and that God was with us. These people didn’t need us so much for our work, but rather to be able to pray and be together.”

Based on her missionary experience, Sister Veronika advised: “When it comes to developing countries, don’t take anything for granted. Provide for your life and your family. Let us stand in solidarity with those in need.” At the memorial service in South Sudan five years after her death, the then Bishop of Yei, Erkolano Lodu Tombe, said: “The Church cannot allow injustice to continue destroying the world. That is why Sister Veronika’s ongoing case has dragged on far too long. But that is how legal proceedings work, and we must continue until we receive justice in court.” In 2019, Slovak President Andrej Kiska posthumously awarded Sister Veronika the first-class Pribina Cross, for her “extraordinary contribution to the social development of the Slovak Republic through preventive health services and her missionary work.” At the memorial service last Sunday, Father Peter Čieško of the parish of Bánov reminded those present that the residents of Sister Veronika's hometown were rightly proud of their fellow citizen and that looking to Sister Veronika's life offered great encouragement to people not only to live for themselves, but also to be ready to offer their help to others. (Fides News Agency, 19/5/2026)

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