December 2, 3 & 4, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.

Thursday evening: Boston College High School, 150 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA

Friday evening: The Paulist Center, downtown Boston

Saturday Evening: Church of St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill, MA

SPECIAL EVENT:  Open Rehearsal on Monday evening, July 19, at 7 pm

at the Paulist Center in downtown Boston

5 Park St., Boston, MA 02108

(c) George Bard, Jr.

About Missionaries

On December 2, 1980, lay missioner Jean Donovan, Maryknoll sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, and Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel were murdered by a death squad for their work helping the poor of El Salvador and for their human rights advocacy, which were considered subversive activities during a brutal civil war that claimed an estimated 75,000 lives.

This year, on the 30th anniversary of their deaths, we invite you to remember their stories as well as the lives of other martyrs, including Father Rutilio Grande and Archbishop Oscar Romero, and the thousands of anonymous people who suffered persecution, torture, and death in El Salvador in the 1980's.

Missionaries by composer Elizabeth Swados is a haunting and beautiful folk oratorio based on the letters, journals, lives, and work of the four American church women killed in El Salvador. It was first produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music after workshop at Vassar College in 1996, sung at the Church of St. Ignatius in New York in 2000, then staged in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004, and performed in concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2005. The 2010 concert will be the work's New England premiere.