To celebrate the beatification of Sister of Social Service Sara Salkahazi, declared blessed earlier this year by Pope Benedict XVI, a new dramatic play by Mary Rose Betten will premier this fall at Holy Spirit Retreat House in Encino.

"Becoming Alleluia" focuses on the impact of Sister Salkahazi's life on the people of Budapest and the troubled times in which they lived, said Betten, who wrote, directs and will perform in the play.

"Sister Sara offered her life for the protection of the members of the community," said Betten, who called the nun "fascinating in her holiness. She made a giant sign of the cross before they executed her."

Sister Salkahazi was stripped, shot and thrown in the Danube River in Budapest Dec. 27, 1944, by agents of Hungary's pro-Nazi Arrow Cross regime for sheltering Jewish women and children at her convent --- part of what Betten called the Sisters of Social Service's "vigorous efforts" to protect Jews from the Nazis.

The order, founded in 1923 to help the working poor, rescued around 1,000 Jews in several towns. The Sisters of Social Service also organized courses to expose Nazi doctrines and protested against Hungarian legislators' failure to prevent the unlawful seizure of Jewish property.

"Due to the fact everything she wrote was in Hungarian I have had only her journal to go by for personal facts and therefore have had to use events surrounding her life there in Budapest," noted Betten. "Sister Sara's superior, Sister Margaret S. (featured in the play) got an audience with the Pope during the war to plead the plight of the Jews, was the first woman in Hungary's Parliament, and wrote to priests all over Hungary to aid the Jews. She gave Sister Sara an outstanding example. Sister Sara got permission from Sister Margaret to offer her life for the community. We have her words of that request from her journal."

The order was suppressed in Eastern Europe after the postwar imposition of communist rule, but members currently are working in the U.S., Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree for her beatification April 28. Survivors of the group of 140 that Sister Sara helped rescue are among those who will attend the Sept. 17 beatification ceremony in Budapest --- the first conducted in Hungary since the 1083 canonization of St. Stephen, recognized as the country's first king.

"Becoming Alleluia" will premier at a meeting of vowed and associate members on September 30 at the motherhouse in Encino. On Oct. 8, a video and DVD will be filmed featuring the original case at Holy Spirit Retreat Center and be made available for the public.

Betten is an oblate of St. Andrew's Abbey whose published and produced plays include "People of the Passion," "Mary M.," "Hildegard 2000," and "My Brother Myself." Her poetry "Hanging Out With Loose Words" was published January 2005, by Foothill Press. She is the wife of Dr. Patrick Mitchell, director of the pre-theology program at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, and together they give programs on spirituality and the arts.

Social Service Sister Chris Machado, associate director of the Los Angeles Archdiocesan diaconate formation program, will portray Sister Sara. At Holy Spirit Retreat Center, Sister Machado serves as spiritual director and co-facilitates the annual New Year's Retreat and labyrinth walks.

Also appearing will be:

---Benedictine Father Joseph Brennan, prior at St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, and a co-presenter with Mary Rose Betten and Patrick Mitchell at their annual workshop at the Abbey, "Finding Your Story."

---Jody and Ron Berges. Jody is a psychotherapist in private practice, a spiritual director, and an Oblate at St. Andrews Abbey. She and her husband Ron --- an attorney, spiritual director and co-director of the Oblates program at St. Andrew's Abbey --- co-facilitates the Oblates workshop.

---Sally Evans, who counsels UCLA graduate students on scholarships and the Fulbright Study Abroad program, a leader/trainer in the Steven ministries in the Presbyterian church, and for many years a mentor for seminary students preparing to become pastors.

---Dusty Butera, a musician and native of Scotland. She and the other cast members have performed Betten's meditation dramas at the Los Angeles Religious Education. Congress, the Pasadena Civic Center, Old Mission Santa Barbara, Holy Spirit Retreat Center, St. John's Seminary and the 2005 John Main Meditation Retreat at California Lutheran University.

For information, contact Holy Spirit Retreat Center at (818) 784-4515, or visit www.hsrcenter.com.