BARDSTOWN, Ky. — Eulogized in the church where she took her vows decades ago, a slain nun was remembered Friday for her devotion to the poor and for the humor she used to comfort her young patients in Mississippi.

Sister Paula Merrill was laid to rest in Kentucky and her longtime friend and co-worker, Sister Margaret Held, was mourned in Wisconsin on Friday, a week after the nuns were stabbed to death in their home in Durant, Miss.

‘‘They needed the people of Mississippi, and the people of Mississippi needed them,’’ said Darlene Nicgorski, a friend of Held’s for 50 years.

The Roman Catholic nuns worked as nurse practitioners at a medical clinic in Lexington, Miss., one of the poorest spots in the nation. They often treated uninsured patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions. Both were 68.

Merrill was born in Stoneham, Mass., and attended Lasell College in Newton.

Along with praise for the lifelong commitment both women showed, mourners also heard a message of forgiveness for the defendant. Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Miss., is charged with capital murder, burglary, and grand larceny.