Sister Gonzaga Peras was born in 1946 in Domašinec, in the Međimurje region. At the age of fourteen she decided to leave her family home and joined a convent. As a nun, she spent many years working in the hospital in Novi Sad. After that she moved to Cavtat, where a monastic community of nuns, Kćeri Milosrđa [Daughters of Mercy] was active. At the beginning of the war in the 1990s she was in Cavtat. She spent the whole period of the occupation of Cavtat in that region, sharing the fate of the rest of the population. During the occupation, a search of the convent was carried out twice. As a nun in the Catholic Church, she found herself in uncomfortable situations on several occasions. Amongst other things, she acted as a courier; she went to the surrounding villages carrying packets of clothes and food from Caritas. In 2007 she received public acknowledgement for humanitarian nature of her work and unselfish help she provided during and after the Homeland War. She is active in a day centre for the elderly and feeble called «Marijin Dom» [Mary's Home] as well as in the Zaklada Bl. Marija Petković [Blessed Marija Petković Foundation] which helps with the education of children from low-income families and families with many children.