Jerry Mitchell

USA TODAY-Network

A Wisconsin native who dedicated her life to helping poor people in rural Mississippi was one of two nuns reportedly found stabbed to death Thursday in their home in Holmes County.

Sister Margaret Held, 68, who was with the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, and Sister Paula Merrill, of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, were found dead at their home in Durant.

Held and Merrill were nurse practitioners at the Lexington Medical Clinic, where they helped treat thousands of patients a year, regardless of their ability to pay.

“These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine," said Father Greg Plata, who serves as priest at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington. "It’s so senseless.”

The nuns lived together in a house on Castalian Springs Road and authorities suspect robbery may have been the motive.

Held grew up in Slinger, where she attended St. Peter's Catholic School, said her cousin Irene Wolf.

"She worked in a poor area of Mississippi," Wolf said. "She always seemed happy and enjoyed the work she was doing."

Held was a teacher at St. Joseph’s High School in Kenosha in the 1970s before heading south, said Michael O'Loughlin, spokesman for the School Sisters of St. Francis.

She earned her nursing degree at Creighton University and during the 1980s worked as a community health nurse in Omaha, Nebraska before performing social work at a health center in Holly Springs, Miss.

In Holly Springs, Held also worked as a community health nurse, a public health nurse and a home health coordinator, according to O'Loughlin.

She would later work as a nurse practitioner in Tupelo and Marks before moving to Durant in 2003, according to O'Loughlin.

Held returned to Milwaukee a couple times a year to visit family and attend events, and never expressed any fear or concern for her safety, he said.

“She chose to live out her ministry among rural poor,” he said.

Sister Audrey Peterson worked with Held and Merrill in Mississippi for many years.

“They were part of the community,” said Peterson, who now lives in Milwaukee. “They lived and worked and worshipped in the community.

“They rented a little house in Durant. They were outdoor people. They had a garden and grew things and shared with their neighbors.

“These were two very, very special, gentle ladies whose total commitment was being present to the poor, “ she said. “They were working with the absolute poorest of the poor.”

Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki said whoever killed the two nuns, "robbed not only the School Sisters of St. Francis, but also the entire Church of a woman whose life was spent in service."

"Sister Margaret was from Wisconsin, so she carried with her the spirit of the religious experience and community found in our local Catholic Church," Listecki said in a statement.

"I offer my prayers to the School Sisters of St. Francis, who have done so much for us here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, to the relatives and families of Sister Margaret and Sister Paula, and to all of those whose lives were touched by their ministry.”

Queen Armstrong, a registered nurse with UMMC Holmes County, said the two sisters, "touched lives all the way out to Kosciusko."

“Every town, they have touched someone’s life.”

If people needed help, “they would go above and beyond, whether you needed medicine or to keep your lights on,” she said. “That’s how they cared for people. The community has lost two great ladies.”

Church officials said the nuns regularly distributed books, school supplies and many other items to the needy.

Dr. Elias Abboud, who owns the clinic, called their deaths “a loss to the community. They were loved by everybody.”

Poor areas, such as Holmes County, “need people with compassion,” he said. “For them, it was a passion and a love for people, a love for the needy.”

The nuns raised funds to cover the costs for poor patients and the uninsured, he said. “They would treat them for free.”

“These sisters have spent years of dedicated service here in Mississippi. They absolutely loved the people in their community,” said Bishop Joseph Kopacz of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson. “We mourn with the people of Lexington and Durant and we pray for the Sisters of Charity, the School Sisters of St. Francis and the families left behind.”

Plata added: “The sisters in Mississippi are the unsung heroes of the church. They go into these small towns and cities and do so much good work.

“She lived the gospel of Jesus and people knew her because of that,” he said of Held. Both sisters worshiped at the tiny Lexington church, singing, participating in Bible study and adult education.

Durant police and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating the deaths.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for MBI, said after the nuns failed to show up for work Thursday morning, a co-worker checked on them at 10:30 a.m., discovering their bodies and contacting police.

A native of Massachusetts, in 1981 Merrill moved to Mississippi, where she lived and worked since.

She referred to her patients as the “communion of saints” and liked to share the quote: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Merrill believed she needed to stay in the Deep South to help, according to a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

When asked about her ministry, Merrill was humble, according to the article.

"We simply do what we can wherever God places us," she said.

In an interview with the Sisters of Charity, Held talked about treating patients in Holmes County, where more than 40 percent live in poverty. “What really appalls me is 60 percent of the children live in poverty.”

According to the article, Merrill and Held rotated one week at a time at the Lexington Medical Clinic and the Durant Primary Care Clinic.

Those in the Catholic community knew them as sisters, but many patients referred to them as “their doctors,” Armstrong said.

Her voice began to break. “They were loved by the community,” she said. “They were loved by me and my family.”

Raquel Rutledge and Jesse Garza of the Journal Sentinel staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.