Commemorating the late Sister Doraci: “Loved by all, cherished by many"

“Loved by all, cherished by many,” is what people who knew the late Deaconess Sister Doraci Edigner said about her. “She was a woman full of life, said Rev. Mabasso, Senior Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mozambique (ELCM).

Three years after her tragic death, those who knew her both locally and internationally are still at grips with her death. “Her tragic death has paralysed the whole Church and has dealt a big blow to all the Congregations and communities she was working with,” said Rev. Dean Mavunduse missionary and advisor to the ELCM Senior Pastor.

Sister Doraci was really committed to uplifting the lives of the poor people, whom she loved and identified with. She was working in the rural areas of Moma, Namina and Cabo-Delgado. The communities there saw her as a dear friend and associate. She even built her own hut of the same shape and structure as those of the people among whom she worked. During her visits she would sleep in that hut.

Wherever she went in Moma, Namina and Cabo-Delgado, small children would run up to her and embrace her skirts, and she would bend down to touch each one of them on the head.

Fifty-three year old Doraci Edinger was murdered February 21, 2004 in the
apartment where she lived in Nampula, 700 km north of the capital of Mozambique, Maputo. She was assigned to the Lutheran Church of Mozambique by the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB).


Sister Doraci was laid to rest on March 6, 2004 in Sao Leopoldo at Hermandad Cemetery, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

She was born in May 13, 1950 in Santo Antonio da Patrulha, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. At 18 years, she moved in with her parents to Novo Hamburgo, where her family lives today. She worked as a shoemaker and eight years later decided to become a Lutheran missionary.

Under the leadership of Sister Doraci, schools and health centers were built in the rural villages in the municipality of Moma. She also helped build wells, guaranteeing portable water for the region. She also encouraged the self-maintenance of rural villages, introducing crops and distributing seeds.

Since she arrived in Nampula, the small Lutheran Church of Mozambique doubled in number, growing to more than 3,000 people. In the neighboring province of Cabo Delgado alone, where she helped found several congregations, more than 800 people were baptized in one weekend

She promoted seminars on health, hygiene and nutrition. She helped people obtain tools for agriculture. She taught people the Gospel and obtained Bibles and material for Sunday school.