The member of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart was violently stabbed with a knife, when other nuns found her in the Jalan Pattimura convent, near Ambon, the main city of the Indonesian province of Moluccas, according to Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, on March 14.

When found by the other members of her community, she was in a serious condition. She was rushed to hospital where she died.

Special prayers were said in every parish in the Ambon area, and, at the nun’s funeral, there were also prayers for world peace. Fides noted that, according to local sources, religion was not the reason for the crime, with the nun’s murderer, not yet identified, thought to have been a common thief.

In 1999-2002, Ambon was the interreligious clashes between resident Protestant Christians and immigrant Muslims in which as many as 15,000 people were killed. The Catholic Church acted as a mediator to promote reconciliation.

Today, tension between the two communities has subsided. However according to local sources there are isolated attempts by extremists to rekindle the conflict also by taking advantage of the situation of hardship and poverty.