"Greatest Living Peacemaker" -- little-known Hildegard Goss-Mayr -- profiled in new biography; FOR to host March 28 book launch March 10 , 2009 Media Contact: Ethan Vesely-Flad, FOR Communications, editor@forusa.org, 510-701-5267 (cell) NYACK, N.Y. - “Hildegard Goss-Mayr is my candidate for sainthood,” said renowned author and monk Thomas Merton, an opinion echoed by numerous other international social justice activists and nonviolence practitioners. Brazilian bishop Don Helder Camara, known as the “Archbishop for the Poor” until his death in 1999, stated, “If the Nobel Peace Prize were mine to give, I would give it to Hildegard and Jean Goss-Mayr.” In his brand-new profile of Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Marked for Life (New City Press, 2009), Richard Deats tells her story of becoming one of the most important yet unknown anti-war leaders of the twentieth century. Deats – whose previous books included the critically acclaimed biographies Martin Luther King, Jr.: Spirit-Led Prophet and Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Liberator – provides yet another inside look at a global figure whose commitment to nonviolence has helped change our modern world. Unlike King and Gandhi, however, few today are aware of Goss-Mayr’s extraordinary legacy. Goss-Mayr, 79, was described recently as the world’s “greatest living peacemaker” by noted activist and writer John Dear, S.J. She has achieved such respect as a result of a lifetime of teaching the philosophy and practice of nonviolence. She now serves as honorary president of the Netherlands-based International Fellowship of Reconciliation. An Austrian Catholic whose family lived under Nazi occupation, Goss-Mayr’s resistance to war and the arms race, and support for interfaith understanding and nonviolent anti-colonialism struggles, have been rooted in her deep sense of faith. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Corrigan Maguire, in her foreword to Marked for Life, wrote, “It seems there was no corner of [the world] too far to go ... Everywhere [Goss-Mayr] went she joined in solidarity with people of all faiths, and none, sharing their belief that killing is not in the spirit of true love, that all faiths can join together in spreading this truth, that every human life is sacred and the spirit of God lives in all men and women.” On Saturday, March 28, 2009, Deats will read excerpts from Marked for Life and tell stories about Goss-Mayr, who he has known personally for more than 30 years. The 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. program will include a book signing and a reception. The event will be hosted at the national headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation at 521 North Broadway in Upper Nyack, N.Y. The event is free and open to the public. Copies of the new book will be available for sale from FOR’s Bookstore at a special event price of $12.00.