The Beginnings of a Life in Service
Katherine Hanania Siksek was born on April 7, 1894, in Jerusalem’s Old City.1 Her father, George (Jurji) Habeeb Hanania, came from a family that had lived in Jerusalem for generations, even possibly tracing their roots back to the earliest days of Christianity. His father was the only Christian judge on the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.
Jurji was passionate about the written word, especially printing and journalism. He founded the first the daily Arabic newspaper, al-Quds al-Asriyya, in September 1908, at the time the Ottoman Constitution was proclaimed, ushering in a period of greater freedom of expression, along with two smaller papers and a printing press.2 The family home was actually next door to the press, and Katherine’s mother, Aniseh Farraj, was the sister of Yaqoub Farraj, deputy mayor of Jerusalem during the 1930s; he also succeeded Musa Kazem al-Husseini as head of the Arab Executive Committee in 1934. After Katherine, their first born, the couple had three more children, another daughter, Futinee, and two sons, Issa and Damian.
Jurji Habib Hanania, with his wife, Aniseh Farraj Hanania, his mother, Katingo Hanania, and his children from oldest to youngest: Katherine, Futini, Issa, and Damian, Jerusalem, ca. 1905
Credit:
Photo by Khalil Raad via the British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
Like many Christian Palestinians, the Hananias valued education, and Katherine’s father took pride in sending his daughters to school.3 In fact, according to recollections written by his granddaughter, Mary Hanania, “Jurji was proud to send his daughters to the best available school for girls in Jerusalem and made sure they would be daily accompanied by an escort carrying their books there and back.”4 She graduated from St. Mary’s School for girls, the predecessor of St. George’s School, in 1909.
Katherine Hanania’s graduation class at St. Mary’s School, Jerusalem, 1909
Credit:
British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
At the age of 16, Katherine (Katingo, a Greek nickname for Katherine, to her friends) married George Siksek, 23, a teacher in the Greek Orthodox patriarchal schools.5 The wedding was small and took place on November 7, 1910, in the ancient church of Mar Elias on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem. George would later work as a school inspector in Transjordan and Palestine. He was also a linguist, passionate about the Arabic language and facile in English, French, Turkish, and ancient Greek.
George Siksek and Katherine Hanania’s wedding photograph, November 7, 1910
Credit:
British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
In 1914, when Katherine was 20 and a young mother, the press began to fall on hard times due to plans for expansion that were perhaps over ambitious. Her father had to leave abruptly for Alexandria to try and raise funds. A short while later, the press went bankrupt, and Aniseh and her two sons had to move to a smaller home in the Old City, near Katherine. Tragically, Jurji passed away at age 56 in Alexandria and never saw his family again.6
Katherine and George had three children, John, Henrietta, and Simon. Henrietta became a teacher, an author of children’s books, and a producer of a children’s radio program. It was Henrietta who continued her mother’s charitable work in Jerusalem.
Katherine Siksek with her three children, Hanna, Henrietta, and Simon, Jerusalem, ca. 1924
Credit:
British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
In 1924, Katherine established a home for the sick and destitute in Beit Jala, starting with just herself and two beds. At that time, it was called the Orthodox Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick (formally registered as the Orthodox Invalids’ Charitable Home Society). This was the beginning of the Four Homes of Mercy. The idea for the home, however, was conceived during World War I, when Katherine joined Red Cross workers to provide aid to the sick and wounded. This experience inspired her to devote her career to the service of others.
After the war, and when the Red Cross unit left Palestine, people in distress still frequented Katherine’s house for help, as by then, she had developed a reputation as an aid and charity worker. In her home, they knew they could ask for help with medicine, food, housing, or even schooling, and they would receive it.
There were a few incidents that drove Katherine to start a charitable home that could support bedridden patients. On one occasion, an elderly neighbor entrusted her handicapped son and daughter to Kathrine’s care following her death. Katherine took them to the German Hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, however, removed them shortly afterwards, with the reason that they could not provide long-term care.
On another occasion, a woman had committed suicide because the pain in her stomach from an ulcer was too unbearable, and she did not have the money she needed to buy medicine. And on a third occasion, a young bride was paralyzed after she slipped while scrubbing the floors. Her fiancé left, and she had no one to look after her. It was then that Katherine established the Four Homes of Mercy in Jerusalem, on June 3, 1940.
Katherine Siksek with her Orthodox Invalids’ Home Charitable Society, Jerusalem, 1940s
Credit:
Henriette Siksek Farraj Family Photo Collection via British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
Members of Katherine Siksek’s women-led charitable organization, the Orthodox Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, 1924
Credit:
Khalil Raad via British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
A Vision for Serving Jerusalemites That Persists to This Day
Katherine held fundraisers and persuaded wealthy women to donate to her initiative. Along with her friends, they arranged regular donations of five piasters per month per family. Katherine herself would walk from house to house to collect donations.
She started in a house of a widowed woman who had four boys. Second-hand beds were used for the patients. Later, as more donations came in, Katherine purchased a beautiful house. But still, she wanted the home to grow and accommodate even more people.
Eventually, the home fit 180 beds, with more tents and terraces to accommodate the growing demand. More and more women from the area came to help. Katherine’s plan was to be able to take in the elderly. It was then, in 1940, that what is today known as the Four Homes of Mercy was founded.
Under Katherine’s leadership, the newly established Four Homes of Mercy expanded its services substantially. Initially, the house was located in the Old City. Over time, more houses were added to encompass the original home for the handicapped, a ward for disabled children, a maternity hospital, an orphanage, and a nurse training school.
During the 1948 War, the institution became a beehive of activity with Katherine at its center, described as follows on its website:
Wars, destruction and nearly a nation of refugees did not shake her faith, even when tents sprang up around the Homes for the aged and when an overwhelming number of patients poured in, her Faith was as strong as ever. The terraces around housed the maimed, the crippled and the aged.
Nurses worked as never recorded in history. The winter of 1948 was cruelly cold, with rain, mud and storms menacing and hovering above the heads of those of the handicapped as well as the homes of the aged. Katherine’s purse filled but then it emptied far more quickly than desired while people gave carefully of the little they had. Such miseries around that could shake the faith of anyone but not Katherine Siksek’s. Those dainty swift legs of a person running on paths of service to others, have become heavy and slow, yet the faith of that steadfast person kept encouraging those around her. “Trust in the Lord,” she used to say. “He is sure to help.” And as people around failed to secure the basic needs of life, her beautiful smile lit up her face and overpowering the very disasters which she met. “Look,” she used to repeat. “Have faith—God is sure to help.”7
After the 1948 War, the institution had to relocate from the Old City. It eventually found a permanent home in al-‘Izariyya (Bethany), just outside Jerusalem, on a plot of land gifted by King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan.
Distribution of food at the Orthodox Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, Old City, Jerusalem, early 1950s
Credit:
Laila and Issa Mashy via British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library Facebook page
Katherine Siksek visits a woman in a maternity hospital in Beit Jala affiliated with the charitable homes she established, 1953.
Credit:
Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 291843
The Four Homes of Mercy was the first institution of its kind in Palestine, and it continues to operate to this day, offering care to people with long-term neurological and physical disabilities. It is one of the oldest and most enduring charitable institutions of its kind in Palestine. Though rooted in the Greek Orthodox Church, Katherine’s pioneering mission served Christians, Muslims, and others alike. Today, more than 80 years later, the Four Homes of Mercy still stands as a living testimony to her vision of caring for some of the most vulnerable people in Palestinian society.
According to the organization’s website:
Walking in [today], one remembers Katherine Siksek whose service went beyond establishment and collecting funds into the care of the patients. Daily she visited by the bedside of the patients asking about their problems and telling stories. What a good storyteller she was—and what eager listeners she had!
How often do we forget that care of the patients has to go beyond the actual care of the body into the care of the soul, the care of persons as human beings with hearts and feelings and likes and dislikes. It is important that troubled human beings should enjoy the feel of relaxation, the feel of comfort and trust. It is only meant to study the psychology of him who leaves his house and becomes part of a room, a bed, and a cupboard. All this Katherine Siksek perceived.8
Katherine Siksek at an inauguration speech of a charitable home in al-‘Izariyya, 1964. Her daughter Henrietta gave the speech.
Credit:
Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 291854
Katherine and George were married for 62 years.
Two years after George’s passing on at the age of 84, Katherine joined him on May 3, 1973. She was 79 years old.9
On Katherine’s death bed, her daughter Henrietta acquiesced to her fervent wish that she carry on her mother’s work. Poignantly, at that point, Henrietta also asked her mother, if she was to write a book about her life, what would be a suitable title? What about The Life of Light and Sacrifice? According to her account, Katherine replied, “I never felt I was sacrificing anything for others, instead I felt I was living in light and love, the light that showed me the way, and the love that is above understanding . . . I felt moved by those who were deprived of loved ones.”10
Sources
Al-Fatafta, Mahmoud. “History of Jerusalem Press (1876–1995).” AlMaqdisiyah (Winter 2025): 188–207.
Hanania, Mary. “Jurji Habib Hanania: History of the Earliest Press in Palestine.” Jerusalem Quarterly 32 (Autumn 2007): 51–69.
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).” Four Homes of Mercy. Accessed October 28, 2025.
Notes
1
“Katherine Siksek (cont.),” Four Homes of Mercy, accessed October 28, 2025.
2
Mahmoud Al-Fatafta, “History of Jerusalem Press (1876–1995),” AlMaqdisiyah (Winter 2025): 188–207.
3
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).”
4
Mary Hanania, “Jurji Habib Hanania: History of the Earliest Press in Palestine,” Jerusalem Quarterly 32 (Autumn 2007): 51–69.
5
“The Siksek–Hanania Family,” British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library’s Albums, February 16, 2015.
6
Hanania, “Jurji Habib Hanania.”
7
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).”
8
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).”
9
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).”
10
“Katherine Siksek (cont.).”