Mother Teresa: A Biography (4 page)

Upon her arrival, Sister Teresa was taken to the eastern district of the city where the school and living quarters for the Loreto nuns was located.

Here the Loreto Sisters worked with the Daughters of Saint Anne, a local congregation of nuns founded by the Loreto Sisters in 1898. These nuns, who were Bengali women, wore not the long black habit and veil of the European order, but the traditional sari, the dress worn by Indian women.

For the hot summers, the sari worn was white; blue was used for the cooler autumn and winter months.

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ST. MARY’S SCHOOL

The school was hidden from the everyday world by high gray walls and tall iron gates. Upon passing through the entrance gates, one came upon a complex of buildings with playing fields and well-tended lawns. The campus comprised several buildings of varying architectural styles. Besides an administrative building and smaller gray classroom building was St.

Mary’s School. There were also quarters for the nuns and for those students who boarded at the school, mostly orphans, girls from broken homes, and children with only one parent.

The school had already established a reputation for itself. Established in 1841, as one of the six Loreto schools in Calcutta, the Calcutta school in Entally educated orphans, the sons and daughters of the affluent and foreign families living in the city. All children wore the same uniform; there was no distinction by the sisters of the rich from the poor, the European from the Indian, Catholic from non-Catholic. The school was also known for educating “Loreto Girls,” that is young Indian women who graduated from Loreto College and who would go on to positions in education and social welfare within Calcutta and India. Not only did teachers and welfare workers graduate from Loreto College, but in time the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court, a judge of the High Court of Calcutta, and several members of the Indian Parliament all received degrees from Loreto. In all, some 500 children and young women were in attendance at the Loreto schools at Entally.

Here Sister Teresa took her place, teaching alongside the Daughters of St. Anne. She taught history and geography. She also became more comfortable in her use of the Bengali language as St. Mary’s classes were taught in both English and Bengali. She soon added another language, Hindi. Her classrooms varied: sometimes, she taught in what once had been a chapel and was now broken into five class areas; other times, she taught in what was once the stables, or outside in the courtyard.

Though the Loreto Sisters might have been sequestered behind the walls of their school and convent, they were not sheltered from the overwhelming poverty of the area; for the poor conditions of the area were found in the shabby environment of the school itself. Everyday, before beginning the day’s lessons, Sister Teresa rolled up the sleeves of her habit, found water and a broom, and proceeded to sweep the floor, much to the delight and amazement of her students, as only people of the very lowest caste performed menial duties such as these. When Teresa saw where the children ate and slept, she was distressed at the terrible condition there.

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Yet, she also found solace and comfort through the happiness and gratitude of her young charges. Merely placing a hand on a dirty forehead or holding the hand of a small child brought her great joy. Many of the children took to calling her “Ma” which meant “Mother,” a term that she treasured.

According to one former student, among the tasks Sister Teresa willingly took on was the organization of classes for the primary school children. Sister Teresa also made sure that the children received baths; for many, this was a real treat and something to look forward to. Prizes were awarded at the end of the school year for the students; in many cases, the most coveted were bars of soap.

Former students remember Sister Teresa as an engaging teacher. When teaching Sunday School catechism lessons, she often told stories of her own childhood in Skopje. Her geography classes were exciting; many students believed that she made the world come alive for them in a way not seen or felt before. This is, perhaps, ironic because Sister Teresa had seen little of the world herself and would not leave the area she resided in for over 30 years.

By all accounts, Sister Teresa again showed her willingness to work hard. She needed her fortitude; the days at St. Mary’s were long. Each day began at half past five in the morning. Upon awakening, the sisters would pray and read their prescribed lessons in the prayer book, or from the Scriptures or New Testament. All were expected to attend morning mass at six o’clock. Classes were held from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M., with tea held afterward. Other hours at St. Mary’s were used for looking after the small children there. There were also other duties awaiting them: papers and lessons to be corrected and a children’s recreation hour to be supervised.

Sister Teresa also oversaw the children’s evening meals and bedtime. Self-discipline was essential if one was to accomplish everything in a timely fashion. Failure to do so indicated an inability to stay within the order.

Throughout her time at the school, Sister Teresa showed herself to be a pious but not overly demonstrative woman. She was charitable and did not tolerate unkindness from anyone, whether a child or an adult. Taking a firm attitude toward her young charges, Sister Teresa rarely displayed her temper at wrongdoing. In spite of the backbreaking work, she always had a smile and a kind word for people. She was no stranger to humor either: when told a good joke or funny story, Sister Teresa clasped her waist in both hands and would often bend over with laughter.

Although the sisters of Loreto took vows to live in poverty, Sister Teresa somehow managed to acquire those things that no one else wanted. Her sheets had more patches and darns than the others. She A N S W E R I N G T H E C A L L

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often wore ill-fitting second-hand shoes, which over time would misshape and deform her feet. Yet she never complained, maintaining a humble and steady demeanor. She was, by all appearances, an ordinary nun, carrying out her religious duties. Neither was she particularly intelligent: her education at best was adequate. Some at the convent remember her more for her inability to light the candles at the Benediction service. As one sister who lived with her during this period recalled, “She was very ordinary. We just looked upon her as one of our Sisters who was very devoted and dedicated.”1 It was this very ordinariness that made the journey Sister Teresa embarked upon so extraordinary.

Sister Teresa also helped with the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, the same organization that had so heavily influenced her life in Skopje. Working with Father Julien Henry, a Belgian Jesuit priest, Sister Teresa participated in the meetings, prayers, and study club sponsored by the group. In addition, Sister Teresa, working with Father Henry, helped the girls of sodality aid the poor.

On the other side of the convent wall was the slum area (
bustee
) known as Motijihl, or Pearl Lake, named for a discolored sump-water pond located in the center of the area. It was from this pond that the residents drew their drinking, cooking, and washing water. Surrounding the pond were the wretched, mud-floor huts of the poor who lived in the neighborhood. It was an area desperately in need of comfort. For Father Henry, this was an opportunity to teach the older girls of St. Mary’s about works of service. Every day during the school week, the priest met with the girls whose ages ranged from the early teens to their early twenties.

On Saturday, the girls left the walls of their compound and ventured into Motijihl in groups to visit with these families, often bearing small items for the children of the poor. Other groups traveled to the Nilratan Sarkar Hospital to visit the sick, where they comforted family members or wrote letters for those unable to do so. Although Sister Teresa took great stock in the efforts of her students, she could not join them because of the rule of enclosure practiced by the Loreto nuns. But perhaps the most important outcome of these efforts was the indirect link forged between the poor of Calcutta and Sister Teresa.

On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa traveled to Darjeeling to take her final vows. During the ceremony, Teresa solemnly committed herself to the Loreto Sisters and to a lifetime of poverty, chastity, and obedience in service to the Lord. Upon her return to Calcutta, she once again plunged into her busy days and teaching, much to the delight of several young children who feared that she had gone away for good. Nothing had changed, save Sister Teresa’s name. She was now to be addressed as 2 2

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Mother Teresa, the name she would go by for the rest of her life. At the age of 27, her destiny seemed to be fulfilled. At the same time, India was in the midst of trying to fulfill its own destiny.

THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN

The India that Mother Teresa came to was no longer the bright and glittering jewel in the British Empire’s crown. By 1929, the British had been in India for a little over three centuries and had governed it exclusively for over 70 years. Now in the early years of the twentieth century, a growing unrest among Indian natives for self-government was increasing and British control over its largest colony was waning.

The British presence in India is a long and dramatic story. Beginning in the late fifteenth century with the early sea voyages of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, India became a prized possession eagerly sought by many European countries. The Portuguese were the first to claim India, her people, and her natural resources for their own. Over the next two centuries, the Dutch, British, and French challenged the Portuguese for the Indian trade.

Of all the European nations to lay claim to India, Britain eventually won and stayed. Beginning in 1600, with the creation of the British East India Company, the British established trading posts in the key cities of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. Despite an encroaching French presence, the English held fast. By 1757, the British had established a strong foothold in the country.

What began as a trading empire gradually grew into political rule. That the conquest came about as the result of a private trading company engaging in conflict chiefly through the use of native Indian soldiers, known as Sepoys, seemed to matter little. By 1849, the rule of the British East India Company was extended over virtually the whole of the subconti-nent by conquest or treaties.

Despite the use of natives as soldiers, the British took a rather high-handed approach to their new possession. Missionaries introduced Christianity and English customs, but not all Indians were eager to give up their traditional ways. As a result, a great wave of unrest began building, and exploded in 1857, when a rumor was circulated among the company’s Indian soldiers that the rifle cartridge-papers they had to tear with their teeth were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The cow is sacred to Hindus, and the pig is abhorred by Muslims. The rumor provoked the great Sepoy Revolt, or Indian Mutiny, of 1857 in which hundreds of British were killed. By the time the mutiny was quelled, the East India Company A N S W E R I N G T H E C A L L

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no longer controlled British India, and a year later, the British Crown took over the administration. Almost two decades later, in 1876, Parliament ruled that India should be designated part of the British empire; the following year Queen Victoria was crowned empress of India.

THE BRITISH RAJ

For the next quarter century following the Indian Mutiny, British rule, or raj, of India was at its peak. Haunted by the horrific memory of the mutiny, the British government enacted a series of measures to avoid another conflict from taking place. To oversee the day-to-day administration of the colony’s provinces, a viceroy of India was appointed by the crown.

However, Hindu and Muslim princes continued to govern almost 600 native states, which were for the most part autonomous. However, they were forbidden to make war on one another, and to keep an eye on things, the viceroy appointed an agent to each royal state whose job it was to advise the ruler.

British rule brought internal peace and economic development to India. The British not only built roads and railways, but canals, irrigation works, mills, and factories. They introduced Western law and police systems, modernized cities, and built schools. Despite these efforts at nation building, many Indians resented the aloof and exacting attitude of the British government. A growing number of Indian intellectuals, many of whom were the products of an English education, began dreaming of a free India. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was created; its establishment marked the beginnings of a growing and organized protest for Indian independence.

TOWARD A FREE INDIA

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Indian troops were called upon to aid the British and their allies against the Germans. Although Indians did so, in the wake of the war, nationalist agitation increased. The British Parliament, recognizing that something had to be done to appease the nationalists, passed a reform act in 1919, which provided for the creation of provincial councils that allowed Indians to participate in helping form policy with regard to agriculture, education, and public health. But the provincial councils were not enough for the extreme nationalists, such as those under the leadership of Mohandas K. Gandhi. This group soon gained control of the Indian National Congress. In addition, Gandhi preached resistance to the British by
noncooperation,
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tance in most every aspect of daily life. This meant boycotting all British-made goods, refusing to send children to British schools and colleges, ignoring British courts of law, and rejecting British titles and honors.

Noncompliance extended to British elections and the British tax system.

By withdrawing their support, the Indian people hoped to stop completely the British in India and allow for the creation of an independent Indian nation. Hundreds of thousands responded to Gandhi’s plea and joined his civil disobedience campaigns, and the Indian National Congress quickly gained a mass following.