An 82-year-old nun was brutally killed in Brazil by an unknown man who invaded the convent where she lived, in the city of Ivaí, Paraná state. The crime caused great commotion among the Ukrainian Brazilian community and the city’s residents, who tried to lynch the suspect.
Sister Nadia Gavanski, a member of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Sisters Servants of Immaculate Mary congregation, was feeding the hens of the religious house when she came across the intruder.
According to a police report obtained by Crux, a photographer was present at the monastery to take pictures of an event and saw the man shortly after the crime. He told her that he worked there, but she noticed he was agitated and had blood marks on his clothes.
The criminal told the photographer he saw Gavanski lying on the ground. She became suspicious of the man and secretly recorded him. She also called an ambulance and the police, to whom she showed the footage.
The suspect was already known to police due to prior crimes and was easily identified and located. As the officers came to his house, he tried to escape and resist, but was contained by the agents. He admitted the crime.
A picture posted on social media by local radio station Copas Verdes shows the 33-year-old suspect sitting on the police van with signs of physical altercation.
“He was taken to a station of the Paraná state civil police, where he confirmed his initial statement. During questioning, he reported having spent the night consuming crack cocaine and alcoholic beverages. He also claimed to have heard voices ordering him to kill someone, which, according to him, prompted him to jump over the convent wall with the intention of taking a person’s life,” the police report read.
The man told the police that the victim saw him and asked what he was doing there. He told her he was working at the convent, but noticed that she didn’t believe him.
“The perpetrator stated that he pushed her, causing her to fall to the ground, at which point she began to scream. He declared that he inserted the fingers of his right hand into the victim’s mouth, causing asphyxiation,” the statement said.
The suspect said he didn’t strike the nun on the head, but admitted that injuries may have resulted from her fall. He also denied having committed sexual violence and having the intention of robbing the monastery.
The police found Gavanski’s lifeless body on the ground, partially naked and with evident signs of physical aggression. The hypothesis of sexual crime will be analyzed during the autopsy and additional steps of the inquiry.
The man was charged with the crime of aggravated homicide, with indications of qualifying circumstances such as trivial motive, asphyxiation, and the use of means that hindered the victim’s defense, as well as resistance.
As he was being taken from a military police station in Ivaí to the civil police station in neighboring Imbituva city, local residents gathered in front of the facility in order to lynch him.
Video clips posted on social media show dozens of people waiting for the police car to leave the station with the suspect, while shouting and insulting him.
“Come out, you old lady rapist!” one of the men shouted. Another one is heard saying: “You robbed my boy, you lowlife!”
The police managed to steer around the crowd and took the man to the police station. He was later sent to prison.
“I was shocked when I received the news of Sr. Nadia’s death. We were preparing to visit the seminary of the priests of the Order of Saint Basil the Great, along with bishops from Ukraine and other countries,” Bishop Meron Mazur of the Eparchy of Immaculate Conception in Prudentópolis in Paraná state, told Crux.
Over the past few days, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv–Galicia, who is the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has been visiting Brazil along with a number of prelates of the rite in Canada, Germany, Poland, and Argentina for their permanent synodal process.
In their meetings, one of the most discussed topics has been the war in Ukraine and the terrible impacts on ordinary people’s lives.
Most of the Ukrainian Brazilian community, estimated at 600,000 people, live in Paraná state. In cities like Prudentópolis, near Ivaí, more than 80 percent of the population of 52,000 people has Ukrainian ancestry.
Almost 90 percent of the Ukrainian immigrants who came to Brazil were originally members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, while a minority was Orthodox. Now, many fourth and fifth-generation Ukrainian Brazilians have different creeds, but most of the community continues to be Catholic.
Gavanski was born in Prudentópolis in 1943 and had seven siblings. She joined the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1971 and worked in a number of communities over the years.
“Sister Nadia’s mission within the Congregation was always fulfilled through silent, simple, and humble service: preparing meals, tending the vegetable garden, caring for the chickens, and maintaining the daily routine of the house. Everything was done with love and faithfulness, transforming the ordinary into an offering pleasing to God,” Sister Juliane Martinhuk, one of her colleagues, told Crux.
Years ago, Gavanski had a stroke, which impacted her speech. Martinhuk said the limitations didn’t impede her from remaining “faithful to her simple duties.”
“Strong in faith, she accepted everything with serenity and trust in God. For us sisters, Sr. Nadia was a true example of consecration, self-giving, and the cultivation of an interior life, made manifest in the concrete attitudes of everyday life,” Martinhuk added.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s prelates visited the sisters’ convent on the day of the murder in order to comfort her colleagues and pray for her, Mazur said.
“We have been talking about the tragedy of war and now such a tragedy has happened. It was a great blow for all of us,” he said.
Mazur, who knew Gavanski in person, said she led her whole life in humility and poverty.
“She was a silent woman who devoted life to work and prayer. She didn’t like to be in the spotlight,” he recalled.
On social media, many residents of the region of Ivaí and Prudentópolis expressed their shock. Some recalled Gavanski’s work in their communities.
“Every life pertains to God. Our outrage is great, but Jesus taught we should forgive. Nobody can take a life. We need to eradicate violence from our society by being promoters of peace and love,” Mazur said.