Missionaries of Charity
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Missionaries of Charity is a Catholic religious order established in 1950 by Mother Teresa to tend to the sick and dying, especially, "the poorest of the poor". The order currently consists of over 4,500 nuns and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, MC.
Mother Teresa received her inspiration to form the order on September 10, 1946, on a train ride from Calcutta, where she taught in a convent school, to Darjeeling. She received permission to leave the convent in 1948, and, after medical training in Paris, her request to establish the Missionaries of Charity order was approved on October 7, 1950. Their first home for the destitute and dying was opened in Calcutta with a staff of 12 nuns, including Mother Teresa.
In 1990, Mother Teresa asked to resign as head of the Missionaries, but was soon voted back in as Superior General. On March 13, 1997, six months before Mother Teresa's death, Sister M. Nirmala Joshi was selected the new Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity.
External links
- Letter by Pope John Paul II on the 50th anniversary of the order, in the year 2000 (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001017_missionaries-charity_en.html)
- History of the order and bio of Sister Nirmala (http://www.ewtn.com/library/PRIESTS/NIRMALA.HTM)