1. Ruth Pfau emigrated from Germany in 1961 and devoted more than 55 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan.
27 Facts About Ruth Pfau
1. 2.
Ruth Pfau contributed to the establishment of 157 leprosy clinics across Pakistan that treated over 56,780 people.
3.
Ruth Pfau died in August 2017 and was buried with full state honours.
4.
Ruth Pfau was born on 9 September 1929 in Leipzig, Germany, to Lutheran Christian parents.
5.
Ruth Pfau's home was destroyed by bombing during World War II.
6.
Ruth Pfau was baptised as an Evangelical Protestant in 1951, before her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1953.
7.
Ruth Pfau stated that she learned the "courage of being human" from Saint Thomas Aquinas through Josef Pieper's writing.
8.
Ruth Pfau joined a Catholic parish, and she was greatly influenced by Romano Guardini's The Lord in this period.
9.
In 1957, Ruth Pfau travelled to Paris and joined the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, a Catholic order.
10.
Ruth Pfau travelled to various parts of Pakistan and across the border to Afghanistan to rescue patients who were abandoned by their families or locked in small rooms for a lifetime.
11.
In 1960, aged 31, Ruth Pfau decided to dedicate the rest of her life to the people of Pakistan and their battle against leprosy outbreaks.
12.
Ruth Pfau started medical treatment for the leprosy patients in a hut in this area.
13.
Ruth Pfau went to distant areas of Pakistan where there were no medical facilities for leprosy patients.
14.
Ruth Pfau collected donations in Germany and Pakistan and co-operated with hospitals in Rawalpindi and Karachi.
15.
Ruth Pfau refused life support, which her doctors removed the next day, according to her wish for "living a natural life".
16.
Ruth Pfau had been dealing with several health problems due to her advanced age, including kidney and heart disease, for which she had been undergoing treatment for several years.
17.
Ruth Pfau left her homeland and made Pakistan her home to serve humanity.
18.
On 19 September 2017, Ruth Pfau's body lay in state at the Holy Family Hospital in Karachi ahead of the funeral.
19.
The state funeral for Ruth Pfau was held at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, in front of which the flags of Pakistan and Vatican City were flown at half mast, with Archbishop Joseph Coutts presiding over the Requiem.
20.
Ruth Pfau was reportedly the first Christian and first non-Muslim to have a state funeral in Pakistan.
21.
Ruth Pfau was then buried at Gora Qabaristan, a Christian cemetery in Karachi.
22.
Ruth Pfau is well respected by Muslims in Pakistan who were the majority of patients at the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre.
23.
Ruth Pfau is remembered in Pakistan and abroad as a distinguished human being, and had been awarded many awards and medals.
24.
On 23 March 1989, Ruth Pfau received the Hilal-i-Pakistan award presented by the then-President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan at the President House for her work with leprosy patients.
25.
In 2006, Ruth Pfau was honoured as the 'Woman of the Year 2006' by City FM89.
26.
Ruth Pfau was hailed as Pakistan's "Mother Teresa" after her work towards helping people displaced by the 2010 Pakistan floods.
27.
In 2015, Ruth Pfau was awarded the Staufer Medal, the highest award of the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.