President Moon Jae-in on Thursday joined in calls for nominating two elderly Austrian women for the Nobel Peace Prize for their 40 years of service to South Korean leprosy patients on the remote island of Sorok, a Catholic priest said.

During a visit to the southern city of Yeosu, Moon signed a petition calling the nomination of the two nurses -- Marianne Stoeger, 82, and Margareta Pissar, 81 -- for the honor, in recognition of their volunteer service, according to Rev. Franciscus Kim Yeon-jun.

Kim has been working to promote awareness of the selfless service of the two nurses. 

Kim, the government of South Jeolla Province and the archdiocese in the southwestern city of Gwangju have been working together to form a committee aimed at nominating them for the Nobel prize. Former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik has agreed to chair the committee.

Moon's signature is expected to give the campaign a boost.

After graduating from nursing college in Austria, Stoeger and Pissar moved to Sorok in 1962 and 1966, separately, after learning that the island was in need of nurses. It had been known and shunned for more than 100 years as a leprosy colony.

The two, better known here as Sisters Marianne and Margareta even though they were not ordained, spent the next 40 years working at the National Sorok Island Hospital as volunteer nurses without pay before they returned to their home country in 2005. (Yonhap)