1832.
Bartolomea Capitanio
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| Charism | To radically follow Christ the Redeemer in His total and unconditional love for the Father and mankind | ||||||||||||||
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| Description | Sr. Cecilia Uetz came to India in 1865 as its 1st Provincial Superior. More sisters were arriving from Italy in batches to replace the ones who succumbed to the climate and lack of nourishment. Nothing daunted their vision though they faced death at a young age because their aim was to reach out to the neediest and the poorest. There seemed to have faced failures when circumstances and imminent death of sisters made the Superiors withdraw them from some places. The sisters had a very hard life with lack of proper accommodation and food. They also faced many difficulties due to difference of language and customs. Above all they suffered because of the climate of Bengal which is very unlike that of Italy. Their woolen dresses were very cumbersome and uncomfortable for the hot climate of India. Yet the sisters bore everything cheerfully for the mission and for the people they were sent to serve. Krishnagar at that time was mostly a mini jungle with no means of communication which made the sisters’ travel to far away villages difficult. They used to go for a few months at a time, stay in the villages, care for them in every way and then return only to go elsewhere after a few days in the community. The sisters reached out to the widows who had no place in the society, teaching them crafts and needlework to make an earning for them selves. The sisters provided them with shelter and security. They also brought up the children who were neglected, abandoned and unwanted. They gave them education, taught them to be good housewives, mothers etc., taught them tailoring and other crafts so that they could be gainfully employed and make their households a pleasant place to live. The sisters reached out to the sick and opened dispensaries where the healing process started with not only medicines but also with compassion and kindness. They did not hesitate to clean the wounds of the leper patients in the hospital at Gobra, Calcutta, giving them dignity the patients had not known. Even while on death bed, people found the sisters at their side, consoling and attending to them to the end. The sisters had never hesistated to work with cholera stricken people as the epidemic used to strike after every natural calamity such as flood, cyclones and famine. As successors of this mission we have been able to expand the boundaries to bring into reality the dream vision of St. Bartolomea to be the ‘Daughters of the Redeemer,’ and that of St. Vincenza to serve the most neglected, specially the sick. We are now into mission fields with shifting realities of the present world with new ventures, while also retaining the old. Thus, education is still a priority and we have formal and informal educational institutions where moral values are imparted to the young along with academic knowledge. Health sector has always been a strong need every where, specially, in the villages where now there are dispensaries bringing healing touch of Christ to the ailing. We even have a hospital in a village. From the start of the mission of our sisters in 1860 our priority has been uplifting the women when they took care of the abandoned of the society, unwanted babies and widows – girls who were married young to much older men and got widowed early. Educating them and trying to place them in the society has been the driving force of our sisters. Now it flows into work in the villages where sisters continue to empower women through literacy programme and enhancing them with qualities to be self-sufficient. The neglected elderly and the sick were taken in and looked after in our old age homes. Now the sisters encourage and educate the families to look after and respect their older members in their own families. The sisters have ventured into new horizons and they now find out means to help the youth to be gainfully employed and the villagers to know their rights. Another stream where the sisters are engaged is, the prison ministry where they actively go to the prisons to listen and motivate the inmates to pursue education or engage in some craft. Many of their children now are staying in our hostel and continue their studies in Govt. schools. Sex workers’ children too are in our hostel studying and are motivated to never engage in the same trade. All this, many a times, was at their own peril as the sisters did not think of their own life but that of doing good to others. The graves at Krishnagar cemetery are mute witnesses to the gallant warriors who did not waver in their resolution and who died very young. Very soon the Institute expanded its boundaries to other places as well and the first shoot to flourish was Mangalore in South India and there a Province was erected in 1932. Though now there were two Provinces, yet there was only one Novitiate and it was in Mangalore. Meanwhile the sisters carried on with their mission in far away land and reached as far as Mandalay (now Myanmar). The sisters used to travel on foot, in bullock carts, in frail boats and crossing the raging rivers on rickety bamboo bridges. They also were adept on horse back, and did not hesitate to ride on the elephants when in need. As the distance was great, for better administration, Province of Myanmar came to be in 1935 At every bifurcation the tears of sorrow of the sisters bathed the land as separation from one another became imminent. At the Independence of India in 1947, Bengal too was partitioned and got renamed East Pakistan. Neighbouring communities now fell into two countries and the sisters suffered this separation of man made boundaries. As the administration posed difficulties, the Province of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) came into existence in 1961. After the war of Independence in this segment in 1971, the country came to be known as Bangladesh. The Lord blessed with vocations from India and in time the need for a Novitiate in the North was felt. This desire, dream and prayers of the sisters was materialized on 4th June 1948, at 14/1 Convent Rd. The Novitiate came to be known as Sacred Heart Convent as it was blessed on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Later, when the place became unsuitable because of the surroundings in a metropolitan city, the Novitiate was shifted to the sylvan surroundings of East Udayrajpur (Barasat) on 8th Sept. 1985. The difficulties of communications in the far flung places necessitated once again the Calcutta Province to bifurcate and thus came into existence the Province of North-East India in 1993. Then once again in order to expand the boundaries of our mission in the North of India and Nepal, the last of the Province, the Province of New Delhi was erected on 9th December 2009. At present the Province of Calcutta is spread out to four states - West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa with 31 communities and 286 sisters with Rev. Sr. Thresia John Madamana as the Provincial Superior. | ||||||||||||||
