Edith Cavell, from Swaddleston in Norfolk, was sentenced to death for helping at least 200 British soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium.
Her last words were: "I die for God and my country."
Ms Cavell's Christian faith impacted her work to such an extent that she indiscriminately helped both Allied and Central forces in the war.
The vicar's daughter was given a state funeral, with a statue of her erected near Trafalgar Square.
She was once a parishioner at Sacred Trinity Church in Salford, where a wreath has been laid in her honour to mark a century since she was killed.
Revd Canon Andy Salmon, the rector of Sacred Trinity, told Premier: "We know that her Christian faith was incredibly important to her. She was reading The Imitation of Christ in her cell as well as the prayer book.
"One of her famous lines, on the night before she died, she said to the chaplain who came to see her: 'Patriotism is not enough. I must hold no hatred or bitterness towards anyone'.
"We all have important things that we can learn from history, and she is certainly somebody who is an inspiring example to us of someone who puts their Christian faith, her love of fellow human beings, into practical action."
Listen to Premier's Antony Bushfield speaking to Revd Canon Andy Salmon on the News Hour here: