Lourdes Swarts

Lourdes Swarts was born in a small, remote town in southwestern Brazil. When she was twelve, her father left the family, and she walked miles into town to find work, helping support her mother and four younger siblings. That early burden seems to have forged the determined, self-sacrificing spirit her friends remembered. Around eighteen, she left for the city to attend college, where she encountered the Unification movement; she never finished her degree, but committed herself fully to the faith.

As a young pioneer, she was reportedly sent to an unfamiliar city with only a bus ticket, slept overnight in the terminal, and within a year had gathered a community of around nineteen members. After moving to the United States, she learned English from scratch and eventually became fluent enough to build a speakers bureau, booking former vice presidents, U.S. senators, prime ministers, and other dignitaries for events. Friends recalled her taking calls from figures such as Dan Quayle and Barbara Walters.

She married Rick Swarts, with whom she shared the role of National Messiah, and the couple raised four children in Pennsylvania: Jonathan, Kasha, Christine, and Hudson. When Rick was sent abroad on a nineteen-month mission, Lourdes managed the household and small children largely alone, often at significant financial strain, yet still giving generously to others in need.

In her later years, she became deeply involved in the King's Report and Rod of Iron–related ministries, organising the Save the Nation conferences, the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival, prayer breakfasts, and a 90th-birthday celebration for True Mother Kang. After a stroke about two years before her death left her with limited sight and mobility, she pressed on — using voice software, hired drivers, and an online Divine Principle study she helped launch.

Speakers described her as a force to be reckoned with, fervent in prayer, generous to a fault, and especially dedicated to American civic and religious life. She was working on a book at the time of her death.

'She was a dedicated, focused, loving woman who wanted the world to know God\'s word.' — Kice Cruz, Philadelphia.