SIBYL KATHIGASU, NURSE

SIBYL KATHIGASU, NURSE - 12 JUNE

SERVANT OF GOD SYBIL KATHIGASU

Servant of God Sybil Kathigasu

Sybil Medan Kathigasu née Daly was born in Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, on September 3, 1899 to an Irish planter and an Indian mother. She was trained as a nurse and midwife and also spoke fluent Cantonese. While working at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, Malaya, Sibyl first met Dr. Abdon Kathigasu Pillai, a second-generation Malay Ceylonese. Born a Hindu, he subsequently converted to Sybil's Catholic faith, taking the name saint name Clement.

When the Japanese invaded Malaya, the Kathigasus, with their young children, moved to Ipoh, later to Papan, took up farming, and started a “grow more food” campaign. After a while the Japanese discovered what else the Kathigasus were doing: a shortwave radio in Sybil’s bedroom picked up information which was relayed to the guerrillas; wounded members of 5th Independent Regiment Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and British stragglers were sheltered and given medical treatment in their house.

In July 1943, Clement, Sibyl's husband, was arrested and Sybil herself was incarcerated a month later. They were both repeatedly subjected to cruel methods of torture to extract information about the underground. Despite being interrogated and tortured by Japanese military personnel for two years, Sybil and her husband persisted in their efforts and were then thrown into Batu Gajah jail and held there.

After Malaya was liberated from the Japanese in August 1945 (following the end of World War II), they were released, and Sybil, badly injured from the torture and still suffering excruciating aftereffects, went to Saint Joseph Church in Batu Gajah to pray and was afterwards flown to the United Kingdom in September 1945 for medical treatment.

Here she began to write her memoirs, later published under the title No Dram of Mercy in 1954. She was awarded the George Medal at the Buckingham Palace by King George VI for her bravery during the Japanese occupation, and was the only Malay woman ever to have received the award.

Sybil died June 12, 1948 - aged 48 - in Britain, the cause of death being a wound on her jaw left by a Japanese soldier which had led to fatal septicaemia. Her body was first interred in the UK and in 1949 returned to Ipoh and reburied at the Catholic cemetery beside Saint Michael's Church opposite the Main Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (now SMK Convent) on Brewster Road (Jalan Sultan Idris Shah).

A road, Jalan Sybil Kathigasu, in Fair Park, Ipoh, Malaysia, was named after this Servant of God after independence to commemorate her bravery.

In July 2024, the Bishop of Penang, Cardinal Sebastian Francis, announced that, in light of her outstanding example of missionary witness, he was opening a cause to examine Sybil's life for her possible canonisation. In consequence of this step, she is referred to as a Servant of God.

Sources:

https://m.ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=477

https://time.com/archive/6776290/war-crimes-edith-of-malaya/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Kathigasu

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