Facts about dorothy stang biography
Home / Religious & Spiritual Figures / Facts about dorothy stang biography
The Sisters reacted by stressing basic tenets of human rights in their lessons and their work took on new proportions and expanded to new areas in Brazil.
Sr. On December 10, 2008, Sr. Dorothy Stang was awarded the 2008 United Nations Award in the Field of Human Rights.
She is buried in a grove in Anapu, her grave marked with a simple wooden cross bearing her name and dates of birth and death.
Visit the Ohio Unit web site for more information about Sr.
Dorothy.
Sister Dorothy Stang
1931-2005
Brazil
Dorothy Mae Stang was born on June 7, 1931 just outside of Dayton, Ohio in the rural community of Shiloh. In 1983, she moved to Anapu, about 700 km south of Belém.
A citizen of Brazil and the United States, Sister Dorothy worked with the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil.
Barbara English was among the group who traveled to Brazil with Sr. Dorothy. She went there for the first time in 1966 with five other Sisters of Notre Dame.
It was she herself who told us one day
that the death of the forest is the end of our life.
“Dorothy Stang - Tu jamais morrerás!” JP Miranda
Sister Dorothy Stang, Martyr
1931-2005
Sister Dorothy, 73, was born in Dayton, Ohio, one of nine children.
On February 12, Dorothy was shot to death because of her defense of local farmers against ranchers invading their lands. In the entire state of Para and in a place like Boa Esperança, legal title to land does not always end disputes. Her dream of landless families safely engaged in sustainable development projects brought her ultimately to Anapu, Para in 1982.
Her first post was in Phoenix, Arizona where she served as a school-teacher during the week and accompanied migrant farmworkers on the weekends. Over time, the communities that Dorothy accompanied began to experience constant invasion by ranchers, corporate soy farmers, and loggers who were taking over the territory by force and destroying the forest, with the complicity of the government and the law.
Though quiet, unassuming, and always willing to dialogue, this witness made Dorothy many enemies and, by the time of her death, there was a $17,500 price on her head. Landless people saw this as an opportunity to become farming homesteaders. She never lost hope.”
Several thousand people attended Sr. Dorothy’s funeral. In Para, logging firms and wealthy ranchers find assistance from local politicians and police in procuring and commandeering property from indigenous peoples and small farmers.
They began shooting just as she read, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Dorothy was seventy-three years old when she was killed. From there, Dorothy was sent to northeastern Brazil to work with poor farmers alongside four other Sisters of Notre Dame in 1966, and several years later she moved west with migrating subsistence farmers when the Brazilian government offered them plots of land in the Amazon region.
She is remembered for her deep love of God, Creation, and the people of the Brazilian Amazon, and she lives on in the communities who carry on her legacy of justice and Creation care.
“Amazonia, Dorothy Stang’s Struggle”
CheminNeuf NetforGod
“Witness to Justice - Sister Dorothy Stang”
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Ohio Province
“THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY - Official Trailer”
First Run Features
“Dorothy Stang You will live forever”