Sister Jula Ivanišević was born on November 25th, 1893 in Staro Petrovo Selo, Slavonia, Croatia. She was 8th out of 11 children born to Terezija Šimunović and Nikola Ivanišević, she was baptized Kata. Her childhood and adolescence was spent in her native village and it was there where she finished elementary school.

When Kata was 18, she asked her mother to let her go into the convent. Her mother was strongly determined against this, saying that there was absolutely no way she could do without her favourite daughter in her illness and old age. There were two more daughters living at home at the time, Tera and Ana. The mother used to say from time to time that both Tera and Ana could go into the convent if they wanted to, but there was no way she could let Kata go. Tera and Ana, however, did not feel the call to Religious Life.

Kata's departure for the convent had to wait for another two years. At that time her mother suddenly fell ill from pneumonia and died in January 1914. Only a month later, on February 7th Kata got her documents and left for her dearly desired and long-awaited goal, the Daughters of Divine Charity Convent of St. Joseph's Institute in Sarajevo. She bade farewell to all her friends and acquaintances in her village happily telling them that she was going off to serve Jesus from then on.

From 1914-1915 she spent some time in Breitenfurt, Austria to learn the German language which she would need for her further formation in her novitiate.

1915 she put on her nun's habit and was given her religious name Jula. Sr Jula made her first profession (religious vows) in 1916. She took her final vows on July 29th, 1923 in Sarajevo. She served in various places in Bosnia and Croatia. In 1932 she was sent to Pale, Bosnia where she was appointed as the superior of the community and stayed there till the end of her life where she together with her whole community was tortured and murdered in Goražde, Bosnia, on December 15th, 1941 with her fellow sisters known as the ‘Martyrs of Drina’.

Though Sr. Berchmana Leidenix was born in Vienna, Austria, she spent most of her life in Bosnia. She was born on November 28th, 1865. She finished training for nursing children and a completed another course for nurses in Vienna. After her novitiate studies in the convent, and having acquired three diplomas, young Berchmana went to Bosnia toward the end of the 1880s. At that time, Bosnia had just barely been liberated from four centuries of Turkish occupation.

Sr. Berchmana was well known for her ecumenical spirit. She earned the nickname of the “Turkish Sister” in the years when she worked in the village of Breske near Tuzla, (Bosnia) because she never missed a chance to teach Muslim children to read and write and nurse them as well as nursing any other children when they were ill. We must bear in mind that she did that at the end of the 19th century, in the years when a literate person in the Bosnian countryside was almost unheard of.

Sr. Berchmana became known among the Palian Orthodox inhabitants as the “Serbian Mother” during the last years of her life there, thanks to the numerous good deeds she did for them, not allowing the differences between their religion and hers to come between them and never treating the Orthodox differently from the Catholics.

During the First World War, Sr. Berchmana worked in a military hospital in the town of Višegrad, Bosnia. She tended to all the wounded with identical devotion and unselfishness, no matter if they belonged to the then regular Austro-Hungarian army or its opponent, the Serbian army. Such conduct brought her much praise, important recognition and even medals.

Sister Berchmana was against the idea that the sisters should withdraw from Pale in autumn 1941. She claimed that the sisters never did any harm to anyone, and that everyone including the Orthodox Serbs, have received a lot of good from the sisters. In those terrible nights of 11th - 12th December among the five nuns who had to leave Pale was 76 year old Sr. Berchmana too. She barely had the strength to walk and with the help of the fellow sisters somehow she reached to the village of Careve Vode. Despite all the help and effort on the other nuns' part, old Sr. Berchmana was completely exhausted and almost half dead. She simply could not take one step more.

Next day, the Chetniks found a sledge and took her, after the other prisoners, to Sjetlina. She was put in with a village family, together with another captive, a certain Mrs. Kocovic. Sjetlina was the last place where she saw the other four sisters. They left for Goražde, and Sr. Berchmana was left behind to recover her strength a little.

Then on 23rd December 1941 two Chetniks came back telling her she would join the other sisters at Goražde but the others had already been killed. They put her in their sleigh pretending to take her to Goražde. Upon their return, the driver told the villagers that the sister had safely joined the other sisters, while one of them had her rosary around his neck. According to a written statement, she was killed on December 23rd, 1941. She set on her way to meet her four sisters indeed, but not in Goražde. They met in heaven!

According to Mrs. Kocovic, the Chetnik who came to take Sr. Bercmana away came back very soon. The one who murdered Sr. Berchmana also took her robes off and took them to Mrs. Vesna Stublic. She remained a prisoner in Chetnik headquarters in Sjetlina and had to sew a Chetnik flag from the black material of the old nun's robes. 

Sister Krizina Bojanc was born on May 14th, 1885, in the village of Zbure near Šmarjeta in Slovenia. Her parents, Mihael and Marija, nee Bizjak, named her Josefa at birth. She was the second among the six children of the Bojanc family. Her parents used to run an Inn at first. Looking for a more steady job and a better future, Sr. Krizina's father emigrated to the United States, like so many other Slovenes in those difficult and troubled times. After some time, however, his family lost touch with him. The mother gave up running the Inn and turned completely to working on the land and to bringing up her children.

Josefa entered the Congregation of Daughters of Divine Charity on December 28th, 1921, at the age of 36. She took the name Krizina.

Sr. Krizina was an exceptional and exemplary nun. Wherever her duties took her, everybody agreed that she was a modest, humble and simple nun. All the nuns admired her hardworking spirit and diligence.

When Sr. Krizina was sent to the Pale convent, she continued to do the heavy work in the convent garden, around the house and in the stables. The nuns' agriculture in Pale, put largely in Sr. Krizina's industrious and capable hands, was an example of how a modern and prosperous peasant holding could be developed even at the foot of the Romania Mountain. The villagers, Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox alike, were amazed by it. They could not even dream that such abundance and variety of plants and such high yields were possible for them, too.

In December 1941 Sister Krizina was tortured and murdered in Goražde, Bosnia, with her other fellow sisters known as the Martyrs of Drina. 

Sister Antonija Fabjan was born on January 23rd, 1907, in the village of Malo Lipje near the town of Ajdovscina in Slovenia. Her parents, Janez and Jozefa, nee Kralj named her Jozefa at birth.

Young Jozefa finished the four grades of elementary school in her birthplace. Spanish flu was raging through Europe after the First World War and took the life of Jozefa`s mother in 1918, when Jozefa was only 11 years old. Now fatherless and motherless, the 8 children were taken in by their relatives' families. Jozefa ended up with one of her aunts. The aunt was good to Jozefa, and treated her as one of her own children.

On April 9th, 1929 she entered the convent of the Daughters of Divine Charity. 1930 she put on her nun`s habit and received her religious name as Antonija. Sr. Antonija made her (first profession) religious vows in 1932. She took her final vows on August 28th, 1937.

She was sent to the Pale community on September 16th, 1936, where she stayed till the end of her life. She was 34 years old when she was tortured and murdered in Goražde, Bosnia, on December 15, 1941 with her other fellow sisters known as the ˝Martyrs of Drina˝.

Sister Bernadeta Banja was the youngest among the five Martyrs of Drina. She was only 29 years old when she met her martyr`s death.

She was born in the village of Veliki Grdjevac near the town of Bjelovar in Croatia on June 17th, 1912. Her parents of (Hungarian descent) Terezija nee Kovač and Josip Banja, named her Terezija at birth.

She entered the convent of the Daughters of Divine Charity on June 29th, 1929. The same year in December she put on her nun´s habit and received her religious name Sr. Bernadeta. Her religious formation as young nun was received in Sarajevo, St Joseph´s convent (the formation house and the mother house at that time).

She made her first profession (religious vows) on the feast of the Assumption, August 15th, 1932 and her final vows 1937.

She was sent to Pale convent (near Sarajevo) after her first profession 1932 where she worked as a cook in the convent kitchen cooking for her community and many guests who came to Pale for some peace and quiet.

In the winter, December 11th, 1941 Serbian fighters called 'Cetnics' broke into the convent looted the house, and burned it down. They took Sr Bernardeta and the other sisters as hostages. In freezing temperatures under snowy conditions without proper winter clothing their journey took four days and four nights from Pale to Goražde over Romania Mountain. She was tortured and murdered in Goražde, Bosnia, were thrown into the river Drina where they were carried down stream.