German nun Ruth Pfau established over 150 medical centers dedicated to leprosy and tuberculosis throughout Pakistan. State funerals are usually reserved for soldiers or heads of state.
Image: picture-alliance/PPI/ZUMA Wire
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Ruth Pfau, a German physician and nun, was given a state funeral in Karachi on Saturday, an honor Pakistan usually reserves for soldiers and heads of state. Hundreds of mourners came to bid farewell to the woman who helped their country eradicate leprosy.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the official funeral would mark her "selfless and unmatched" services to the country.
Pfau first came to Pakistan in 1960 to dedicate her life to treating leprosy patients, establishing 157 centers dedicated to those suffering from the disease. As cases of leprosy dropped throughout the country, she turned her attention to tuberculosis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) credits Pfau's efforts for making Pakistan one of the first countries in Asia to be completely free from leprosy.
Dr. Ruth Pfau's life in pictures
German-born medical missionary Dr. Ruth Pfau was laid to rest on August 19 in a state funeral in Karachi, Pakistan. Pfau is widely referred to as "Pakistan's Mother Teresa" for her humanitarian services.
Image: DAHW
An era comes to an end
A state funeral and tributes pouring in from all sections of society for a person who doesn't belong to the mainstream faith is something that doesn't come often in Pakistan. But Dr. Ruth Pfau was the recipient of these honors after spending more than half a century in the South Asian country, battling leprosy and helping the country's most vulnerable people.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/DAHW/Maik Meid
Birth and early life
Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau was born into a Protestant family on September 9, 1929, in Leipzig, Germany. The post-war Soviet occupation of East Germany forced her to escape to West Germany. She studied medicine there during the 1950s at the University of Mainz. Pfau met a Christian woman who was a concentration-camp survivor, and this association eventually led to her converting to Catholicism.
A matter of fate
Pfau moved to Marburg and continued her pursuit of medicine. In 1957, she joined the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, a Catholic order, which sent her to south India. In 1960, a problem with her visa meant she found herself stuck in the Pakistani city of Karachi. After deciding to stay, in the years that followed Dr. Pfau travelled across Pakistan and into Afghanistan to treat patients .
Image: DAHW
Woman on a mission
The German-born medical missionary joined the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center in Karachi. She soon transformed it into a network of 157 centers that treat thousands of people infected with leprosy. Funded by German, Austrian and Pakistani donors, the center and its satellite clinics have also helped victims of the 2000 drought in Balochistan, the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and floods in 2010.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Worthy of top civilian awards
Dr. Pfau was often compared to Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa of Calcutta), the famous nun born in what is today Macedonia who ministered to the poor in India. Pfau was granted Pakistani citizenship in 1988 and received numerous accolades for her services, including the country's top civilian awards, Hilal-i-Imtiaz and Hilal-i-Pakistan, in 1989 and 2010 respectively.
Image: DAHW/Uli Reinhardt
Light comes to an end
Dr. Ruth Pfau died on August 10, 2017, in Karachi after spending a few days at a local hospital because of several health issues, including kidney and heart disease. Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced a state funeral for Pfau as accolades poured in from all quarters of the society in a country deeply marred by sectarian and political rifts.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Khan
Pakistan's Mother Teresa
Dr. Pfau was laid to rest in Karachi on August 19, 2017, after a state funeral. She is only the second person to be accorded this honor in the past 29 years, with the last state funeral being held for late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi in 2016. The flag of Vatican City was also hoisted at the cathedral Saturday morning, while the national flag of Pakistan remained at half-mast.
Image: picture-alliance/PPI/ZUMA Wire
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Dr. Pfau died on August 10 at the age of 87 at her Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center in Karachi, which is the capital of Sindh province. The province's chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, was one of the hundreds of people on hand to watch her coffin be brought to its final resting place in Karachi's oldest cemetery, Gora Qabaristan.
Her coffin was draped in the Pakistani flag and covered with rose petals, and was accompanied by a 19-gun salute as members of all three branches of the country's armed forces kept watch. The ceremony was broadcast live on national television.
"There is no one like her and there won't be any replacement to her. We pray to God to send people like her again to this world so that they could continue serving people," said Martha Fernando, who worked with Pfau and the Martha Adelaide Leprosy Center.