Sister Marie-Claude, a 72-year-old religious sister, has been commended for her "extraordinary courage" after attempting to disarm a man who stabbed a priest in a Catholic church in Nice, southeastern France.
Sister Marie-Claude reportedly intervened after the 31-year-old Christianophobe entered the Saint-Pierre d'Arène church during Sunday Mass on April 24 and repeatedly stabbed Father Krzysztof Rudziński.
She sustained a wound to her forearm and was transported to the hospital along with the 57-year-old priest.
The Diocese of Nice stated in an April 24 communiqué that neither the sister nor the priest suffered life-threatening injuries.
Politician Éric Ciotti commended the sister in a post on his Twitter account.
"Extraordinary courage of Sister Marie-Claude who intervened while the assailant continued to stab Father Christophe," he wrote.
"She wrested the knife from him while she was wounded in the forearm."
Father Rudziński, originally from Suchowola in northeastern Poland, was reportedly stabbed up to 20 times, primarily in the chest.
Bishop Piotr Turzyński, delegate of the Polish bishops for the pastoral care of Polish immigrants, issued a call to prayer for the priest and the sister.
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"In a spirit of solidarity, I commend the health of the wounded to God's mercy," he stated, according to the Polish Catholic press agency KAI.
The Diocese of Nice described the assailant, who was arrested at the scene, as "apparently mentally unstable."
The French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne reported that the attacker, a French citizen who identified as Jewish, had previously undergone psychiatric treatment.
Catholics in Nice were the target of an Islamist attack in October 2020. An assailant stabbed three people to death at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice.
"Once again, a tragedy has struck the Catholic community of the Alpes-Maritimes. And once again, in the heart of the city of Nice," the Diocese of Nice said on Sunday.