A 72-year-old Catholic nun has been praised for her “extra-ordinary courage” after she sought to disarm a man stabbing a priest at a Catholic church in Nice, south-eastern France.
Sister Marie-Claude reportedly intervened after a 31-year-old man entered the Saint-Pierre d’Arene church before Sunday Mass on April 24 and repeatedly stabbed Father Krzysztof Rudziñski.
She received a wound to the forearm and was taken to a hospital along with the 57-year-old priest.
The Diocese of Nice said in an April 24 statement that neither the sister nor the priest suffered life-threatening injuries in the incident, which police said was not related to terrorism.
Local politician Éric Ciotti commended the sister in a post on his Twitter account.
“Extraordinary courage of Sister Marie-Claude who intervened while the attacker continued to stab Father Christophe,” he wrote.
“She snatched the knife from him while being injured on the forearm.”
Father Rudziñski, originally from Suchowola, north-eastern Poland, is believed to have been stabbed up to 20 times, mainly in the chest.
Bishop Piotr Turzyñski, the Polish bishops’ delegate for the pastoral care of Polish immigrants, appealed for prayers for the priest and sister.