In November 1989, six members of the Jesuit community of the University of Central America in San Salvador, including the rector, Igancio Ellacuria, were massacred by government troops. Twenty-five years later, this book provides the definitive account of the path that led to that fateful day, focusing on the Jesuits' prophetic option for the poor, their role in the renewal of the Salvadoran church and society, and the critical steps that caused them as Archbishop Romero would put it, to "share the same fate as the poor."
Drawing on newly available archival materials and extensive interviews, Robert Lassalle-Klein gives special attention to the theological contribution of Ellacuria and Jon Sobrino, who survived the massacre, and the emergence among the community of a spirituality that recognized the risen Christ in what Ellacuria called "the crucified people of El Salvador."