Servant of God Dorothy Stang

Dorothy Mae Stang, SNDdeN, (June 7, 1931 – February 12, 2005) was an American-born Brazilian Catholic Religious Sister and missionary. She was murdered in Anapu, Pará, in the Amazon Basin in 2005. Stang had been outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment and had previously received death threats from loggers and landowners. Born Dorothy Mae Stang on June 7, 1931, in Dayton, Ohio, later a naturalized Brazilian citizen, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1948 and professed final vows in 1956. From 1951 to 1966, she taught elementary school classes at St. Victor School in Calumet City, Illinois, St. Alexander School in Villa Park, Illinois, and Most Holy Trinity School in Phoenix, Arizona. During this time she earned a degree in education at what later became Notre Dame de Namur University. Stang began her ministry in Brazil in 1966, in Coroatá, Maranhão. Initially she helped to establish pastoral centers scattered among the isolated communities of the region, where she instructed the local populations in the Catholic faith. Growing closer to the people she served, she began to know the threats posed to both them and the local environment. She eventually dedicated her life to defending the Brazilian rainforest from depletion by commercial agriculture. Stang started to serve as an advocate for the rural poor beginning in the early 1970s, helping peasants to make a living by farming small plots and extracting forest products without deforestation. She also sought to protect peasants from criminal gangs working on behalf of ranchers who were after their land. Dot, as she was called by her family, friends and most locals in Brazil, is often pictured wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, "A Morte da floresta é o fim da nossa vida" which is Portuguese for "The Death of the Forest is the End of Our Lives". On the morning of February 12, 2005, Stang woke up early to walk to a community meeting to speak about the rights for the Amazon.