Missionaries of Charity
The Missionaries of Charity are a religious community in the Roman Catholic Church that was founded by Mother Teresa together with twelve sisters in Calcutta . The sisters commit themselves to a life according to the evangelical counsels , poverty , celibacy and obedience .
history
Mother Teresa, the founder of the congregation , joined the Loreto Sisters Irish Branch , a teaching congregation, at the age of 18 . The nuns were particularly involved in the mission in India . In 1928, Sr. Teresa took her first job in Bengal and put in Calcutta the profession from. Sr. Teresa worked there as a teacher until 1945 and then began nursing and caring for the poorest in Calcutta. After initial difficulties, the new community was recognized by the Church as a congregation under papal law in 1950. On February 1, 1965, Pope Paul VI issued the Order the Decretum laudis . The religious community provides service to the poor and is spread almost all over the world. More than 5000 sisters work in about 135 countries, the congregation has 710 houses. These include homes for the dying, leprosy or AIDS patients , the homeless and children.
Admission into the religious community
Candidates who want to join the Missionaries of Charity should be between 18 and 35 years old. You go through a six-month period in preparation for the candidacy, then a period as an aspirant (candidacy), which also lasts half a year. This is followed by a one-year postulate , after which the candidate becomes a novice . The novitiate lasts two years, followed by temporary vows before perpetual vows a few years later.
Order costume
The costume of the order follows the more randomly chosen simple clothing of the founder of the order and consists of a white cotton sari with three blue borders . The white color of the material stands for "truth" and "purity"; the three blue stripes are interpreted as “poverty”, “obedience” and “chastity”. As undergarments, women do not wear the short-sleeved choli jacket that is otherwise common with saris , but a long-sleeved shirt. A cross is sewn over the left shoulder . Novices wear a pure white sari without the blue borders. Each sister only has three saris; These are made in the order's own weaving mills - often by leprosy sufferers. In 2016 the order received the copyright on its costume.
Religious superiors
The first superior was Mother Teresa. After her, her long-time assistant, Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi, led the community from 1997 . On March 24, 2009, Sister Mary Prema Pierick , a native of Germany, was elected as the new Superior of the Order.
Germany
In 1979, Mother Teresa's sisters founded the first German branch in Essen. Further houses were built in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Chemnitz, Mannheim, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt am Main.
literature
- Karl Frank: Missionaries of Charity (Missionaries of Charity). In: Walter Kasper u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon for theology and church . 3. Edition. Vol. 7, Freiburg 1998, ISBN 978-3-451-22100-2
- Leo Maasburg: Mother Teresa: The wonderful stories. Pattloch Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-629-02248-6
- Sam Wellman: Mother Teresa: Missionary of Charity (Heroes of the Faith). Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville (Ohio) 1997, ISBN 1-57748-105-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ India: Frozen in Cult , Focus No. 8/1997 of February 17, 1997
- ↑ Jubilee Letter to the Congregation [1]
- ↑ GlaubeAktuell: Missionaries of Charity ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of September 5, 2007
- ^ Missionaries of Charity ( Memento of August 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) September 5, 2007
- ↑ Order costume
- ↑ https://www.motherteresa.org/08_info/Sari.html Ordenstracht (English)
- ↑ https://www.kath.net/news/22480