Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity (MC) is a Roman Catholic Latin rite congregation started on 7 October in 1950. It was founded by Mother Teresa.[1] It started in the slums of Kolkata (Calcutta, India) with Mother Teresa and 12 sisters.[2] It now has a membership of nearly 5,000 sisters worldwide.[2] Members of the religious order show they belong to this group using the order's initials, "M.C." A sister who belongs to MC must follow their vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. There is also a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."[3] MC members all wear the same white and blue habit that Mother Teresa wore.[4]
From one to three stripes
changeIn 1948 Mother Teresa changed her Sisters of Loreto habit to a simple cotton white sari with one blue stripe.[5] Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary.[5] The sari covered an all white habit. She (and later, her sisters of charity) wore the habit for over ten years. But parents of several Bengali sisters pointed out that the sari with one blue stripe was also worn by poor women who swept the streets of Calcutta.[5] Mother Teresa and her sisters officially adopted the three blue stripes in 1960.[5]
References
change- ↑ Julie McCarthy (9 October 2015). "Mother Teresa's Missionaries Of Charity Says No More Adoptions In India". NPR. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tara Little (19 July 2008). ""Recruiting Missionaries of Charity is placed in God's hands"". The Arkansas Catholic/Roman Catholic Vocations. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ↑ Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), pp. 105, 113
- ↑ Staff (19 October 2003). "Their Sari Has a Value All Its Own". Zenit. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Mother Teresa habit: From one stripe sari to 3 stripes". NewsGrab. 29 July 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
Other websites
change
- Volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata Archived 2016-01-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Missionaries of Charity Fathers (started by Mother Teresa)
