OUT OF NOTHING THE GENESIS OF A GREAT INITIATIVE

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OUT OF NOTHING THE GENESIS OF A GREAT INITIATIVE
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OUT OF NOTHING
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“The Genesis of a Great Initiative ”

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by

Sister M. Adelaide Orem, S.C.M.M.

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THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION OF INDIA
New Delhi.
1968

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DEDICATED
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to

Sister Mary Glowrey, M.D., J.M.J.
C.H.A, Foundress
and

Mother Anna Dengel, M.D., S.C M.M.
C.H.A. Benefactress

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CONTENTS
Introduction

Page

Chapter

I.
IL
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.

Out of Nothing
India Calls
Doctor and Sister
The Catholic Medical College
Its Guiding Spirit
A Recording
The Guard Changes
The Executive Director
Medical Guilds in India
The Catholic Nurses’ Guild of India
Professional Education
Professional Associates
Its Administration
Our Sisters—Our Hospitals

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15
23
37
52
59
68
79
89
99
112
126
133
137

Memorandum of Association

C.H.A. Conventions

141

C.H.A. Governing Boards

147

Sister Enrolment—St. John’s Medical College 1967

181

Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION
This silver jubilee account of twenty-five years is an
attempt to preserve and make known the history of the
Catholic Hospital Association of India. It has been com­
piled at the request of the Governing Board. Its members
realize that persons pass on into eternity, yellowed pages
crumble into nothing with each successive breath and touch,
the ink of the past fades in the light of the present, and soon
all is forgotten. Yet the pioneering of the past can and B
should provide the foundation and inspiration for future '
medical planning of the Church in India.
Six of the eight Sisters who were the original signers
of the Memorandum of Association when the C.H.A. was
founded on July 29, 1943, continue to be leaders in this
country. These Sisters have contributed valuable human
interest material to make the documents come to life.
During the last twenty-one years of the Association’s
existence, the author has been personally associated with
many of the Governing Board members. The facts are
herein assembled, but meeting the jubilee publication
deadline did not contribute to a literary polish. However,
may it inspire a renewed of Sister leadership to continue]
and expand the medical work which has been so well
started.
The first great objective of the Catholic Hospital Asso­
ciation will be partially accomplished with the dedication
of St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, during the 1968
jubilee celebration. To fulfill the twin objective of the
founders, a College cf Nursing must complement the medi­
cal school. Would this not be a fitting memorial for the twen­
ty-fifth anniversary of the Association. The Sisters have

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colleges, where with a small additional staff, nursing could
be incorporated in the curriculum.
The Sisters now owe a debt of gratitude to the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of India. This debt can only be repaid
by a mutual cooperation between the Catholic hospital staffs
and the Dean of St. John’s Medical College. The College
needs to be completed, supported, and affiliated with teach­
ing hospitals. To initiate and organize this cooperative,
Sister leadership is required. Sister Mary Glowrey, M.D.
of the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph has set the example
for the Sisters of India.
If this history of the Catholic Hospital Association of
Indian inspires even one dedicated person to work and
lead others toward such a goal, it will have served a pur­
pose.

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OUT OF NOTHING
While the world was at war in 1943, the Catholic Hospital
Association was founded. Reporting the event, an editor
in Trichinopoly headlined it the ‘‘Genesis of a Great Initia­
tive”. This beginning of Catholic hospital organization in i
the East was so timed that the Church was ready to partici- [
pate a few years later in the building up of a medical service
for the people of the new India.
It was a year of great medical need. Army hospitals had
been set up in India, but neither hospitals nor professional
staff were adequate to care for the war wounded. Military
and civilian casualties pouring out of Burma included vic­
tims of tropical disease and malnutrition. A British mili­
tary nurse, after the siege of Imphal, Assam, said, ‘T have
never seen so much pain and suffering, and we had so little
with which to relieve it all”.
It was in October of 1943 that The Health Survey and
Development Committee was appointed under the Chair­
manship of Sir Joseph Bhore, to make a broad survey of the
health conditions and health organization in British India,
and to draw up recommendations and plans for postwar
development in the health field. The four volume study
which was published in 1946, and popularly known as
the famous ‘Bhore’ Report, is still used as the basis for
comparative statistical health studies.
In Bengal, famine was raging, due not so much to lack
of food, but to disorganization caused by the threat of the

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enemy on the borders of the Province and the unceasing
internal agitation for Indian independence. It was an urban
famine, shocking because the casualties were concentrated
where they could be seen. In addition to the starvation
problems in its slums, Calcutta, the London of Common­
wealth India, was undergoing a miniature blitz. The Loreto
nuns, Bengal’s religious pioneers, had vacated their extensive
property at Entally for use as a military hospital. Loreto
House, in the centre of the city, (hostess to Catholic Hospital
Association Conventions in the years to come), was the recep­
tion centre for the sick, displaced evacuees from Burma.
Mother Monica, who welcomed the C.H.A. sisters to
Calcutta twenty-three years later, still vividly likens the
Japanese bombing to an earthquake which shook this the
oldest house in the city to its foundations. She remembers
the American army nurses going in and out of the Chapel
and asking for Irish prayers before flying to the Assamese
front. In the Entally military hospital the sisters sang the
only midnight Christmas Mass celebrated in Calcutta that
December of 1942, having waited for hours until the skies
were clear of enemy planes.
Some eight hundred miles down the coast of the Bay of
Bengal the port city of Madras was also endangered. It was
an Archbishop of this city who, after bringing religious sisters
to India, secured permission for them to practice profession­
al medicine and midwifery. Now, in 1943, another Arch­
bishop was promising Our Lady a church dedicated to her
honour, if the city was saved from the bombing. Between
these two large cities, and a few miles inland, is Guntur,
then in the Madras' Presidency, now on the changed map of
India, the third most densely populated city of Andhra
Pradesh. Here on Thursday, July 29th, 1943, sixteen sisters
gathered for the first meeting of the Catholic Hospital Associa­
tion. Right Reverend Monsignor Ignatius Mummadi^

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Bishop-elect of Guntur, presided. Three religious congrega­
tions of Madras Province were represented: 12 Sisters of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, 2 Sisters of St. Anne, and 2 Sisters
of the Presentation. From the Netherlands, Switzerland and
Ireland, they represented the medical apostolate of the
Church in Southern India. A few more sisters engaged in
medical work had been invited, but distance and restrictions
on travel prevented them being present. They planned a
medical campaign which was to be carried on by a profes­
sional hospital organization, the first in the Orient. They
were followers of Florence Nightingale, who organized pro­
fessional nursing and introduced it into India after her own
war experience. The Sisters had in their midst a veteren
leader to guide this new Association.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowery, M. D., was
directly responsible for this meeting at St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, where she had been living and working in the midst
of the appalling health conditions which triggered the Bhore
survey. From her first year in India, Sister Mary, an Aus­
tralian by birth, had prayed and planned fora Medical Col­
lege to further the medical apostolate in her adopted country.
To reach this seemingLy unattainable goal. sheJnitiated the
formation of the Catholic Hospitals’ Association of India.
One of her sister companions at Guntur remarked, -Tn fact
she created this Association out of nothing—for at that time U
Catholic Hospitals scarcely existed in India. Under Sister ''
Mary’s inspiration and determination the Association even­
tually came into existence in 1943”.
How did the Second World War precipitate this meeting
and the founding of the Catholic Hospital Association?
Most important was the restriction on international travel,
making it impossible for religious congregations to send re­
cruits for medical staffing. Then, too, with the impetus given
to medical mission work by the Vatican decree of 1936 per-

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mitting religious to practice medicine and midwifery, the
private Catholic institutions which has been started were
finding it difficult to secure Government recognition for
the professional staff, especially in Madras Presidency.
Informal planning for the proposed Catholic Hospitals’
Association began in 1941 when the Sisters of St. Anne and
the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph met to discuss the
matter. A formal step was taken in May J942 when His
Excellency, Right Reverend Thomas Pothacamury, D. D.,
at that time Bishop of Guntur, in collaboration with Sister
Mary of the Sacred Heart, began circularizing the hierarchy
and religious, inviting comments on the suggested Associa­
tion. Enclosed with Bishop Thomas’ covering letter was
an unsigned pamphlet written by Sister Mary of the Sac­
red Heart. It is an inspiring appeal to which Bishops and
Sisters encouragingly responded. Sister Mary began the
two thousand word circular as follows:

“ Union Gives Srength
An Appeal to Catholic Hospitals in India to Organize
and Form a
Catholic Hospitals' Association
“In the course of an inspiring address delivered during
the Catholic Nurses’ Congress which was held in Rome in
1935, our late revered Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, urged
Catholic nurses to build up a strong organization in order
to combat materialism and grow more perfect in the exer­
cise of their profession. ‘Nothing could be more opportune
or more necessary’, said His Holiness, ‘because it is in the
nature of things, and God Himself, Creator of all things, tells
us that we must organize ourselves.’
“This exhortation was given to nurses who, being already
convinced of the necessity of organization, had become

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whole-hearted members of the International Guild of Catholic'
Nurses. What would His Holiness have said to us medical
missionaries at work in India, scattered units, who are trying
to give of our best in the cause of Christian Charity, and yet
see all our efforts disappear like a mere drop in the ocean of
misery and suffering that surrounds us? Would not the
same revered Holy Father have urged us to organize?
“In Holland, Catholic activities have been an object
lesson to the world: Catholic hospitals were well equipped
and well staffed’, new rtheless, they felt the need of organizing,
and established a C atholic Hospitals’ Association in 1931
Five years later “Ons Ziekenhuis”, the journal of the Asso­
ciation, published a “Lustrum” number, which claimed
that there was good reason for jubilation, for the Association
had proved its utility and was flourishing beyond all expec­
tation
“On the occasion of Congress of the International
Association of Hospitals, His Holiness, Pope Pius XI, receiv­
ed Rev. Father Schwitalla, S. J., Spiritual Director of the
Catholic Hospitals’ Association of America, in private au­
dience. His Holiness spoke at length about the great work
of Charity done by Sisters in hospitals and the spirit that
should animate them in the exercise of their zeal. The Holy
Father exhorted religious nurses to noui isr the spiritual life
within them so that their work might b.:ar fruit in time
and in eternity. At the same time His Holiness expressed
great satisfaction at the progress mac ' ’ i the training of
Sisters for hospital work.
‘Thorough training is necessary", said His Holiness;
‘by this means the work of the sisters and the hospitals they
control will be able to take a pre-eminent place, but in the
first place, this naming must be Catholic through and
through
The course of training for nurses must be
arranged in such a manner that the particular spirit which

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animates each order or congregation, may not suffer in the
least'.
“These words show the fatherly care this venerated Holy
Father had for his spiritual daughters. It is to the same
beloved Holy Father, the ‘Pope of the Missions’, that we
owe what might be termed the “Charter of Medical
Missions”, the instructions issued by the Sacred Congrega­
tion of Propaganda Fide on February the 11th, 1936, in
which Sisters are urged to qualify as doctors and nurses
and obtain diplomas. These instructions contain a strong
recommendation that the required certificates should, if
possible, be obtained in Catholic institutions.
“Here in India we are faced with the difficulty that Catho­
lic institutions in which Sisters can train as nurses and ob­
tain recognized certificates are few indeed. In the Madras
Presidency for instance, the examinations in general nursing
conducted by Government are for Government hospital
trainees exclusively. In the Presidency the only other Ex­
amining Body which issues certificates recognized by
Government is the Christian Medical Association,
which examines the trainees of Protestant mission
hospitals.
“The status of nursing and the recognition of certificates
varies from province to province. If Sisters are to be
trained as nurses, it is therefore essential that Catholic
hospitals should establish their own Board of Examiners
and conduct examinations which will fulfil the conditions
required for international recognition of diplomas of nurs­
ing. This of itself necessitates organization, which, as we
have seen, was so strongly advocated by Hi - Holiness, Pope
Pius XI.
“Everything is organized” said His Holiness. ‘It is
one of the conditioils of life. It is indispensable, dear
daughters, everywhere nowadays wre see it. Even the
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their strength grows
powers of evil are organizeo,
organized. so that
far and wide .
creator and can spread its influence
_ anized.........
' *■ -The power of good must.also be or.
""'Z powerful, its num
order thafanyor^nization may grow
'first
We always sav,_fiizL
bers must grow more importan .
numbers are
■\ that is to say,
of all quality, then quantity
but we long for
not of the first importance to us; .. • and Good’. When
the moment when we can
c_.. say ‘Many
Associations, it is important
it is a question of important
- should hasten to support
t0 get numbers, and everyone
strengthen them. Our
such organizations, in
i- order to , those who, with every
thoughts, like your own. eo out
good intention, keep t—
on their own, or witn inubc
call themselves ‘neutral’. They
work in the true spirit of
with you, who wish to w=
UP
Jesus Christ’.”
placed his seal of
•t from Rome
The Apostolic Delegate
when he wrote to Bishop Thomas
approval on the
t. project
. .
as follows:
17. Palace Road
Apostolic Delegation of
Bangalore
the East Indies.
June 13, 1942
15896/42
Your Excellency,
of work I could not reply sooner to
(Xing to pressure:
accompanying memovour welcome letter ol tne □
A^ociation. I have

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training facilities for Catnonc
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and any endeavour to do something similar in India deserves
not only praise but earnest encouragement and support.
Thanking you for taking an interest in the matter, with
cordial greetings and best wishes,
I remain,
Yours devotedly,
Sd/- Leo P. Kierkels, C.P.,
Apostolic Delegate.
To
His Excellency,
The Most Rev. P. Thomas.
Bishop of Guntur.

In a letter to the Bishops and religious superiors written
from Guntur July 6, 1942, Bishop Thomas introduces
Sister Mary and adds his own appeal:

“I am enclosing herein a Memorandum and some ten­
tative proposals for the establishment of a Catholic Hos­
pitals Association. They have been drafted by Sister
Mary of the Sacred Heart, (Dr. Mary Glowrey, M.D.,
_ Melbourne), Superintendent, St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, with the approval of her Superiors.
Now that the usefulness of Catholic Hospitals for the
relief of the sick and suffering and as a valuable adjunct
to our missionaries’ endeavours is being increasingly
recognised, the demand for a staff of qualified nurses
has become pressing but facilities for the training of
the Sisters are few.
With the spread of the horrors of war the need for a
larger supply of nurses has become imperative. The
formation of a Catholic Hospitals Association on the
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line suggested in the Memorandum will prove a great
boon and enable us to meet an urgent need. If our medi­
cal mission work can be coordinated the problem of the
supply of an adequate and efficient nursing staff can be
solved. United representation to the Government will
enable us to obtain the necessary permission to form
our own Board of Examiners and to fulfil the conditions
required for international recognition of the diplomas
of nursing. The time for uniting our forces in the medi­
cal line seems opportune and I shall be glad if you will
kindly let me have your views on the subject before fur­
ther steps can be taken for the formation of the pro­
posed Association.”

By November 1942, the answers received were compiled
into a second booklet entitled ‘‘The Proposed Catholic
Hospitals Association”. Quoted are letters from four
Archibishops, fourteen Bishops, two Prefects Apostolic,
the Franciscan Superior of Bellary Mission and Very Rev.
Msgr. Joseph Panjikaran of the Archbishop’s House, Ernakulam, who was preparing to found the Medical Sisters of
St. Joseph at Dharmagiri. Eighteen religious superiors
among the sisters responded from hospitals in Kashmir,
Raw, ipindi, Assam, Patna, Dacca, Sind and South through
Pond cherry to the tip of Travancore.
Thus the foundation had been laid for the July 1943
i; . . . ig in Guntur. The resolutions proposed and appioved included the establishment of a Catholic Hospital
ciation whose membership should be vested in Catholic Medical institutions and Catholic religious communities
cri.j-'.oyed ffi secular medical institutions. A committee
v , appointed to frameYules for the^Vssdciation, a managing
N d' for interim business, a board of examiners for nursing
and midwifery, and a committee to deal with nursing edu9
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cation in southern India. The Memorandum of the Asso­
ciation was drawn up and signed.
The first meeting was publicized throughout India.
The September 1943 issue of “Rays of Light”, organ of the
Catholic Truth Society of India, Trichinopoly H.O., (South
India) carried a full account of the proceedings. The same
magazine in November 1943 published the following, which
is now of historical interest:
“Ceylon is interested—
“His Lordship, the Right Rev. M. Ignatius, Bishop of
Cuntur, has received several letters about the Association
from Ceylon.
“Their Excellencies, the Bishops of Chilaw, Galle and
Trincomali have sent their warm approbations. The Bishop
of Chilaw adds:—“In my diocese there is one large hos­
pital with over 500 beds, where the nursing is done by Sis­
ters of the Holy Family Congregation of Bordeaux. There
are three others with about 100 to 200 beds, looked after by
Jay nurses. If Your Excellency would instruct me about
the formation of a branch Association in this Diocese,
I shall take immediate steps to have it established here.
“This Association has great prospects, if all the Dioses will join together and organize. There are instances
when only a united movement can command the respect
■of the Government for our rights.”
Nine months later on Saturday, April 22, 1944, the
Second Meeting of the Association was held at the Convent
of the Good Shepherd, Bangalore. Thirty-five delegates
from eleven medical institutions were present. Bishop
Thomas who had been transferred from Guntur to Banga­
lore presided, and gave the opening address:
“It is certainly encouraging to see such a large and re­
presentative body of Sisters, deeply interested in one of the
most fruitful branches of the Catholic Apostolate. They
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have come from such distant places as Patna and Jubbulpore. Many more surely would have come, had it not been
for the difficulty of travelling in these abnormal times....
Let us hope that our united deliberations will result in giv­
ing a definite shape to the Association and in placing it on a
solid and permanent basis
“No mission is complete unless it goes in for educational,
medical and social service. Hospitals offer us precious
-opportunities for establishing and perpetuating the reign
of Christ. They bring us in contact with numerous
■elements of the population, whom we could not re; ch other­
wise. They are not, it is true, proselytising agencies, nor
>are they mere philanthropic institutions. They are an in­
separable aspect of the Life of the Church and a practical
und concrete lesson in Christianity
“Catholic medical work is still in its initial stage and it is
not yet well organized. Il is remarkable that it was lay
-doctors who realized the urgent need for Catholic hospitals,
•doctors and nurses, and the tremendous possibilities of
medical missions for the spread of the light of the Gospel.
“Dr. Agnes McLaren, a Scottish convert, founded a
•Catholic hospital in Rawalpindi, Dr. Margaret Lamont,
another Scottish convert, visited various parts of India
soipe two decades ago and wrote constantly and enthusias­
tically about the urgency
of developing medical
missions.
“Dr. Anna Dengel also worked with the same object in
India, and later founded the congregation of Medical Mission Sisters in Washington. Fr, Becker, who was Prefect
Apostolic of Assam, and who was repatriated in the first
World War, started in 1922, the Wurzburg Medical Mis­
sion for the training of lay men and women doctors, who
pledged their knowledge and skill for the service of the
Missions without any emoluments for personal benefits.

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Within a period of 16 years, 44 of these doctors had gone to
the Missions.
We cannot forget the splendid services rendered by
St. Martha s, the first Catholic medical institution in the
country. The Congregation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
was also among the first to establish hospitals for women
and children, and all their convents in Guntur, Nellore,
Kurnool and Bangalore have hospitals attached to them.
There is real need for more hospitals and the existing
ones should have better equipment with increased staff in
order that their work may be more effective. We have not
a single Catholic medical college or school in the whole
country. This defect should be remedied. We must
have training centres for nurses. Only St. Martha’s in
Bangalore andjhe Holy Family Hospitals at Rawalpindi
andj’atna are now recognized for the training of nurses.
“Medical work represents Christianity in word and deed
That is something which the poorest and most ignorant can
understand and appreciate. We must have more hospitals,
chiefly in rural areas, and the existing ones should be more
adequately equipped to meet the demands of advancing
medical science. They will bear living testimonv to Christ
and His Spirit. We are living in stormy times and the future
is uncertain, for there is a growing antagonism to Catholic
mission effort. Butjnstitutionshke hospitals will be a sheet
anchor of the Church.
“Hospitals are the last missionary enterprises to be
disturbed by hostile political elements in any emergency
that may face us in days to come.”
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart ended her welcoming
speech “Vigilate” with a stirring appeal:

.
We now have a Catholic Hospitals’ Association. Let
' us make it a power in the land so that if occasion arises.

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under the leadership of our Bishops, wc may form a
united body that can command a hearing. Watch!
Be on your guard!”

A retired Judge, Very Reverend Monsignor J.A.
Dc'Rosario. S. J., was present at this meeting. With his
expert legal advice the Constitutions and Rules were drawn
up and the Association began to function. A Council was
elected and meetings held on April 23 and 24.
The parting blessing was given by His Excellency, the
Most Reverend Leo P. Kierkels, C.P.

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“It is the Apostolic Delegate’s duty to represent not
only the Holy Father’s Person, but also his mind and
solicitude, and we all know how important the Holy
See considers hospital work in Mission Countries.
That work has been called the Apostolate of Charity,
because charity opens the way for truth. But charity
must also aim at efficiency, and efficiency means co­
operation and organization. That is the purpose of
your Association, which I bless most fervently, that it
may grow and prosper and achieve its far-reaching
objects. If ever I can help you in any way, I shall
always be at your disposal
“I now bless you all. you personally and all the commu­
nities and hospitals you represent.”

So blessed, the Sisters of the Catholic Hospital Associa­
tion left this first general meeting to put into effect the
Resolutions which had been passed:
1. That the Association aim at the establishment of a
Catholic Medical College and a Collegiate Course
in Nursing.
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2. That the C.H.A. publish a pamphlet or magazine.
3. That the Council be empowered to appoint a Board of
Examiners in Nursing and Midwifery.

An expression of concern was also
also made
made regarding
regarding com
com-­
pulsory inclusion of birth control propaganda in the mid­
wifery and public health courses, and the compulsory sterili­
zation of lepers. So from the beginning the Association
sought to safeguard moral and medical ethics.
i

This is the story of the ^Genesis of a great initiative".

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INDIA CALLS

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The religious woman whom the Fathers of Vatican Council II visualised when they wrote the Decree on Religious
Life is personified in Sister Mary Glowrey, M.D., a medical
apostle of India and Foundress of the Catholic Hospital
Association. Sentence by sentence this timely Decree,
which is suffering so much misinterpretation, can be ap­
plied to Sister Mary who lived it to the full in the service of
the Church.
Sister Mary entered religious life as an educated, mature
woman. Strong in a faith instilled by her parents in a happy
Catholic Item.:, she chose to follow Christ. In no way did
her vows mt Fro with her professional medical work, her
freedom foi apostolic action, her personal influence upon
the thousand- fpeople from all classes of society with whom
she was associated, nor a contemplative life of prayer and
union wr . < Holy Spirit. Rather they united all into

F

or.e etenu.l whole.
she was
As both the pre-and post-Vatican II religious, sknot only a biblical scholar, but she breathed the scriptures,
Quotation: i.'om the gospels parallel her daily experience
Christ and His Apostles. Because Sister Mary
with those
'plished
writer, she unconsciously word-paintwas an .
’ . Because she openly loved God and
ed her
portrait,
of
God,
when she writes in a religious vein,
the peopf <.

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there is a hint of nineteenth-century romanticism; profes­
sionally she is the stark realist so acceptable today. The
small biography “Australian Medical Nun in India” writ­
ten by Ursula Clinton, B.A., and published by The Advo­
cate Press, Melbourne, Austrialia, ten years after Sister
Mary s death, in no way exhausts what will be told of
her in the years to come.
India knew Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart for thirty­
seven years as a member of the Society of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph. Mother M. Kinesburge, Franciscan Missionary
of Mary, who worked closely with Sister Mary on the Board
of the Catholic Hospital Association for fourteen years,
wrote as follows in 1961. “Due to her great humility, and
hidden sanctity, her capacity for giving all the credit for her
success to God, her religious congregation, and her co­
workers, the part Sister Mary has taken in the advance­
ment of medical social science in this country, especially in
the field of maternity and child welfare, is not well known.”
From Sister Mary’s own account we have a vivid picture
of her call to India.
On a certain Sunday, years ago, Hospital Sunday was
celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, and Rev.
W. J. Lockington, S. J., preached a special sermon for the
occasion on the text: ‘Honour the physician for the need
thou hast of him’.
“Humbled at the thought of my own unworthiness of
the encomiums heaped upon the medical profession, I walk­
ed away from the service pondering the preacher’s words
in my heart. On entering my consulting room in Collins
Street, I found a small pamphlet addressed to me by the
Rev. Donal A. Reidy of Ballarat, who had formerly been a
curate in Walchem. It was a London Catholic Truth
Society publication (B226) 1915, and bore the^itle7 ‘Dr
Agnes McLaren, by Mary Ryan, M.A. University Col16

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lege, Cork. Ireland’. Was it merely by accident that this
reached me on the feast of St. Raphael, the ‘Physician of
God’? It was in a spirit of curiosity that 1 began to read
the pamphlet. I finished it on my knees.
“I read the booklet to the end, and closed it thought­
fully. One thing I had asked of the Lord—my mother
had taught it to me from my tenderest years—to do the Holy
Will of God. Now on bended knees I adored this mani­
festation of His Will and answered ‘Fiat’. Mine was now
the privilege—1 say it in all reverence—to rise up in
haste and cross not the hills but the seas, and carry Jesus to
many a mother and child.”
This was October 24, 1915. Let us go back twenty­
eight years. Born in the Western District of Victoria, Aus­
tralia, on June 23, 1887, Mary was five months old when the
family moved to Garvoc, her father s birthplace. There
they stayed until she was five years old.
In those days of large Australian parishes and few priests,
Garvoc had Sunday Mass only once a fortnight. Each
night the family Rosary was said, and with it a prayer for
priests and doctors. Mary Glowrey. many years later,
recalling that practice, wrote, “when my brother and I
were respectively priest and doctor. 1 sincerely hoped that
many another mother added that “trimming” to the
Rosary”.
Mary’s early education was first by her mother, a teach­
er, who taught both her own and the neighbor’s children.
Later Mr. GlowTey hired a Catholic lady teacher who contin­
ued the work until a state primary school was opened. A
good student, Mary won a State secondary scholarship.
She completed secondary school in Melbourne. Follow­
ing her B.A. degree at the University of Melbourne, she went
on to the study of medicine, unusual lor a woman of her
day, and received her M.B.B.S. in 1910.
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Dr. Glowrey took a position as resident doctor at the
Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand. This caused a bit
of a stir, since she was the first woman doctor and the first
non-New Zealander to be granted such a position. After a
year of valuable experience she returned to Melbourne, to
the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. By the time World
War I had started she had her own successful private practice
in Collins Street, the Harley, Street of Melbourne. She
remained on the staff of the Eye and Ear Hospital. In ad­
dition, she was physician in the out-patient department of
St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Catholic Hospital of Melbourne,
which also afforded clinical experience for medical
students. During the war much of Dr. Glowrey’s time was
taken up relieving for doctors who were in military service.
When Very Reverend Lockington, S.J., started the Catho­
lic Women’s Social Guild in Melbourne, October 1916,
Dr. Glowrey was persuaded by its founder to allow herself
to be nominated as its first General President. It was
the first organization of Catholic women in Victoria, and
Dr. Glowrey was elected President. She was constantly
addressing meetings, in both metropolitan and country
centres. She gave medical lectures, presided at the annual
conferences and carried on the heavy administrative duties.
She wrote frequent articles on health for the Guild’s monthly
magazine. The Horizon, which is still widely read. In 1919
ostensibly for health reasons, Dr. Glowrey resigned frem
the Presidentship.
There were other reasons for her resignation, however.
While she was carrying on this strenuous social work in
addition to her medical practice, she had been studying for
a higher medical degree. She passed the examination in
gynaecology, obstetrics and opthalmology, and the degree
[ of Doctor of Medicine was conferred December 23, 1919.
She had more than the ordinary professional reason for

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securing this degree, but that was still her secret. When
she left Australia a month later, only Dr. Mary Glowrey’s
family and a few very close friends knew that she had gone,
where she had gone and why. Almost five years had passed
since Dr. Glowrey’s “Fiat”.
We shall let Sister Mary tell of the call. In reality, it is
the narration of the birth of the Catholic medical mission
apostolate, and it is India that gave it birth. All the pro­
fessional medical mission work now being accomplished
throughout the Catholic world began with thTs story, the
life of Dr. Agnes McLaren.
"
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“Dr. Agnes McLaren w as a member of a Scottish house­
hold. Her father, popularly known as ‘the Member for
Scotland’, was an intimate friend of such men as Gladstone,
Bright and Cobden, whose names go down through history.
The family were deeply religious. Of Agnes in particular,
her step-mother said, ‘She lives close to God’.
hVignes McLaren felt that by studying medicine she
could best satisfy her longing to follow in the footsteps
of Christ who ‘went about doing good’. Yet, strange to
say, staunch Presbyterian though she was, she turned for
ad\ ice to Cardinal Manning. The Cardinal u-?.ve her a
letter of introduction to the Bishop (later C: hnal) de
Cebrieres, through whose influence she was admitted to the
renowned Medical School of Montpellier, where she took
her M.D. in 1878. She was the first woman d w or to set
her degree at this University.
“Dr. McLaren practised for the most r>, •• - j France.
She was untiring in the exercise of her profc-.ienal duties,
and in works of charity. She boarded in a Franciscan
convent, ‘If this young lady were a Catholic’, n n-. j-ked one
of the nuns, ‘she would surely be canonized".
“That Dr. McLaren should have becom. catholic is
not surprising. What causes surprise is that her c inversion

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did not take place till she had reached the age of sixty-one,
and yet she had made an annual retreat for many years.
On becoming a Catholic, Dr. McLaren redoubled her works
of charity. One idea inspired her. It was to promote medi­
cal studies among women who should then staff hospitals
in which a Christain atmosphere could be ensured. This
work she considered of great value for Europe, but abso­
lutely indispensable for India where rigid custom debars
women fro mseeking help from a medical man.
“Dr. McLaren establidied~a Kbspital for women and
children at Rawalpindi in the northwest of India and put a
medical woman in charge. Then she began a search for
‘vocations’. Medfearstudents combining all the necessary
qualities of heart and mind were difficult to find.
“Dr. McLaren therefore tried to secure the services of
nuns. That nuns should study medicine was regarded by
many as a ‘daring novelty, or at best an unpractical dream’.
In the course of her endeavours Dr. McLaren gathered
much evidence, and made several journeys to Rome. ‘Her
strongest argument in favour of nuns, an argument which
we find repeated in every petition, was that, amongst Catho­
lic women who have the ideal of self-sacrifice and mission­
ary zeal, so large a proportion is absorbed by religious orders
that the supply of secular Catholic women doctors for such
work must needs be precarious. It will naturally be for
them a question of salary, seeing that they will have to
provide for their own future’. Dr. McLaren concluded
her appeal as follows :—

-•t*-

‘In the opinion of all the Bishops in India that I have I
seen, considerations of economy, assiduity, and conti­
nuity requires the services of nuns.... the only way to
reach many women in India is to send them medical
women’.
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Sister Mary continues, “These points proved coin
clusively to me that God wanted me in India. 1 consulted
a Jesuit Superior in Melbourne, but he was later transferred
to Sydney, and I did no more about it.
“In June of the following year, .1916, Msgr. Reidy from
Killarney, Ireland, sent me a copy of a Jesuit publication
I "America”. This contained in it a letter from the Most
Reverend Dr. John Aden, the Dutch Archbishop of
Madras, to Dr. Paul iTPlagg. M.D.ymember of the Medical
Mission Board, New York. In this letter Archbishop Aelen
wrote begging the Board to educate medical women as mis­
sionaries. I showed the p unphlet to Rev. Father Lockin­
gton. S. J. He made enquiries on my behalf by writing to
■ Archbishop Aelen who immediately replied by cable Come .
‘‘A letter from him soon followed telling of the work
of the Sisters of the Society of Jesues, Mary and Joseph,
whom he had brought to India from Holland to render
medical help to Indian women. Their services were in
considerable demand in the houses of the Brahmins and
yet more in the huts of the poor.
Dr. Glowrey was anxious to go at once, but, on account
of the war, she could not. Letters went back and forth
between her spiritual director, Father Lockington, S.J.,
and Jesuits in India. It was suggested that she g? first as a
lay missionary to Rawalpindi, and a position vs offered
her there, but as Dr. Glowrey wrote ‘it was not n} desire
to go to India to work for wages’.
Perhaps the greatest joy she had during her 1 t years in
Australia was the ordination of her brother Ec .aid to the
priesthood in May 1918. He spent his life in the Ballarat
Diocese holding some important administraiivc posts and
died prematurely as Dean Glowrey in December 1950.
Her parents were, of course, among the fe^ who knew
of the great changes of purpose coming over D: Glowrey’s
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life. She wrote to them in far-away Watchem explaining
her plans.
“I pointed out”, she wiites, “that I owed my vocation
entirely to them—to my mother who taught us we must pray
to do the Will of God, and to my father, who perseveringly
asked me to study medicine. Then I received a beautiful
letter from each of them in turn. When I did not go imme­
diately my father asked me did I change my mind”. It was
during these years of waiting that Dr. Glowrey took the
M.D. degree and helped establish the Catholic Women’s
Social Guild in Melbourne.
Just before leaving Australia, Dr. Glowrey made a retreat
at the Convent of Mercy, Goulburn, New South Wales.
She left Melbourne for India on the ship “Orsova” on
January 21, 1920. She learned later that this day was the
first Wednesday of a Novena made to St. Joseph for nine
successive Wednesdays before his feast, March 19, by the
Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in India each year.
Among their intentions was medical help for their
missions.
Reaching Madras on February 11, the Feast of Our
Lady ot Lourdes, Dr. Glowrey stayed with the Presentation
Nuns. She met Archbishop Aelen of Madras, who had
been so anxious for her to join his Dutch missionaries, and
who welcomed her in no uncertain way. The following day
she went by train to Guntur.

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DOCTOR AND SISTER
Years later, Sister Mary described her arrival.
In
February 1920, 1 reached the station of Guntur, the site
of my future labours. My first visit was to Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament. High above the altar stands the statue
of the Sacred Heart with arms outstretched in welcome,
and before the altar were inscribed the words: ‘The Master
is here and calleth for thee’. I joined the Society of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph on February 12, 1960". So Mary Glowrey became Sister Mary of the Sacred Hgarfi.
There was no novitiate of the Society in India and she
would have had to make her novitiate in Holland had not
Archbishop Aelen obtained special permission from Rome
for her to remain in Guntur. As the only postulant she
had the privilege of living with the professed sisters. She
worked in the dispensary and studied languages for she
had to speak Telegu to the patients, and Dutch in the Con­
vent. Her novitiate was devoted completely to religious
training.
In a series of articles written, by Sister Mary and pub­
lished by Mother Anna Dengel in the “Medical Missionary ,
Washington, D.C., during the year 1936, we get a glimpse

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of Guntur, her new home.
"The year 1921 was not unusually hot in Guntur, but for
more than six weeks of the ‘hot season' the temperature
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did not fall below 116°. Night and day seemed to differ
little. Birds used to come to our well and fall fainting into
it. During this period more than 50 people died in Guntur
from sun-stroke.
“Two of our ward-maids went to the well to draw water.
The day had been close and cloudy, and it was already even­
ing. They felt tired and sat on the parapet wall of the well.
A sister came along at that moment and, observing a dazed
look on their faces, she hurriedly pulled them from the
parapet. That well is 60 feet deep and a few moments
later both girls were in a state of coma; both had a tem­
perature of 110°.”
She experienced what every pioneer missionary suffers in
India—heat and drought. She continues, but it is some
time later:
“There is one great want. It is the lack of water supply.
We have a pipe laid from the municipal supply, but at best
it gives only a trickle, and the supply is turned off during the
greater part of the day. | Besides the source is so low that we
have to go down steps into a pit about six feet deep in order
to reach the tap. It is impossible therefore to have pipes
laid to any part of the hospital. Our second source of sup­
ply is a well in the convent compound, about 100 yards away.
This well has to supply the needs of about 300 people. So
when the sisters or the children who are helping us go to the
well for water, they often have to wait long because oni\
one pot can be put down at a time. The water is 60 feet
below ground level, so it is hard work pulling up the
full pot. The buckets must be filled and carried back to
the hospital. If only we had a WINDMILL!”
When she came out of the novitiate in 1922, the out­
patient department of St. Joseph’s Hospital was started.
Sister Mary described the one room with a verandah in
front, which served as dispensary and patients’ waiting

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room. “Inside was a table with three bottles containing a
few drugs, namely, sodium bicarbonate, potassium citrate
and epsom salts. There was a tiny cupboard made of
boxes which contained a few instruments, all that the Sisters
possessed”.
How could she, now a religious, practice medicine?
Sister Mary, in her President’s Address at the annual C.H.A.
Convention held in Ootacamund in 1946, spoke on this sub­
ject. Sister Mary recommended to the audience Kather­
ine Burton’s book “According to the Pattern”, which gives
the life story of Dr. Agnes McLaren, to whom she owed her
vocation.
“The book tells how Dr. McLaren founded St. Cather­
ine’s Hospital in Rawalpindi, and of the endless difficulties
in getting and keeping a medical staff. She w as forced to
the conclusion that the problem could only be solved by
staffing the hospital with qualified religious. Then come
the greatest difficulty. She could not find religious who were
permitted to do medical and obstetrical w'ork. The sanc­
tion of Rome was needed. In 1906, when over seventy
year: of age, Dr. McLaren visited India. She consulted
pic;;ie after prelate^andTobtained the approval of all
os . tern. Subsequently she made no less than five visits to
Rome.
Among the Bishops whom she consulted w7as the coM imor Bishop of Madras—later Archbishop Aelen, who
wab then residing in Guntur. Bishop Aelen was convinced
th'i it was essential for religious to render help to Indian ,
vomen. In 1904 he brought the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and !
J.., ., ph from Holland to Guntur. In 1906, they were end in maternity work, for His Excellency, Bishop Aelen,
hsd represented the matter in Rome and declared that he
refused to be responsible for all the souls that would suffer
if diis much needed help were denied. When I joined the

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Society in 1920, permission was immediately obtained for
1116 “to do medical work in bonum animarum”. Similar
permission was granted to Sister Veronica (Dr. Ethel Pitt),
but various other Congregations fared less well with their
petitions.”
In 1932, Dr, Ethel Pitt, M.D., now Sister Veronica,
also a graduate of the University of Melbourne, entered the
Society, made her novitiate in the Celebes, and in 1934
came to Guntur for a few years. However, when the decree
issued by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide
on February 11K_1^3.6J cleared the way for religious to
practice medicine throughout the mission world, St.
Philomena’s Hospital was started in Bangalore in 1937, and
Sister Veronica Pitt took charge there.
When the foundation stone of St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, was lajd in 1925, the Catholic hospitals in India
could be counted on one hand. Sister Mary said “I was
still the only medical woman among our Sisters. I felt
like a solitary grain of wheat that dreams of a golden har­
vest”.
Between 1927 and 1936, Sister Mary cared for 6,37,096
patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “There was so much
work to be done and so many patients, I could work day
a rd night without stopping”, was Sister Mary’s descriptlion of the medical situation. However, her administra-tions were not bounded by the hospital compound. In a
scientific article “Heat-Stroke and Sunstroke”, printed in
the Medical Missionary” July 1936, Sister Mary inserts a
personal touch,

' Last year the season was rather hot. One morning
die newspapers gave Guntur a place in the sun. ‘Guntur
124°’, ran the headlines, ‘and the ROHINI KARTHA
(the real hot season) will begin tomorrow!’ We were
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-called to see a patient some distance away. The journey
thither took four hours by rail; the return journey took
six hours. We were late in arriving home, and found
our Reverend Mother anxiously awaiting us, for four
Indian men had been removed dead from a train that
reached Guntur at 8-30 that evening."
Sister Mary also wrote to Mother Anna D, iigel regarding
the spiritual side of the work. “The day before yesterday
a number of people in a neighbouring villag. were received
into the Church. On Monday morning Father Dengel
(Mill Hill Father and Di. Dengel’s brother) said Holy Mass
here early and went to the parish priest’s assistance, ac­
companied by Reverend Mother and the Sisters who had
been giving the villagers instructions. It is no small under­
taking. ... In all, 120 odd were baptized that day. The
Fathers were very happy and the people not less so....
Such days are days of great happiness, indeed."
As the gynaecologist and pediatrician. Sister Mary
wrote in 1929, “Patients of all kinds come, but there is one
•class which is coming in ever greater numbers, the childless
.mother. At present we have among our patients women
who have lost 3, 6. 8 and even 13 babies. Many another
•women comes hugging close her babe, the only one left
•out of 8 or 9 or 10. “Save my baby" is the cry from many
an aching heart. If the child be not at its last gasp, as it
often is, (though the fond mother refuses to see this) we
’.try our best.... A ward has been set apart for the ante■natal treatment of childless mothers. Over and over again
we have the happiness of seeing them embrace a bonny
healthy babe. This work, too is costly."
All her professional life, Sister Mary had trained and
advocated the training of compounders and pharmacists.
She had studied the native pharmacopeia, and the equivalent

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Western medication. “Ancient Oriental Medicine”, published by Dr. Dengel in the U.S. in 1941, illustrates Sister
Mary s study and familiarity with the two ancient systems of medicine in India—the Ayurvedic (Hindu) and the
Unani (Moslem). She ends her paper on an encouraging
note, The recent Nationalist movement, by emphasizing
everything Oriental, has created a new interest in the an­
cient systems of medicine. This is not an undesirable state
of affairs, for, since Western medicine cannot supply the
personnel to relieve the widespread distress in India, the
only sane thing to do is to study scientifically these ancient
systems of medicine and to help the kaviraj and hakim whereever it is scientifically possible to do so.
Sister Mary became known not only in Australia and in
the United States, but in Europe as well. In 1938, she <
received world-wide publicity:

•v

“Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, J.M.J. (Mary Glowrey, M.D.) gave a report on the hospital work done at
St. Joseph s Guntur, India, for the World Congress of
Gynecologists and Obstetricians recently held in Ams­
terdam. The details and conditions found and the treat­
ment used are specially interesting to medical men and
women all over the world. Sister mentions that there is
only one medical woman available for every 17,000 deliv­
eries, to say nothing of the various other ills to which
the women of India especially are subject, and stresses
that Indian women require the seivices of medical
women. She once more voices her hope of seeing estab­
lished in South India a Medical College for Women.”
On the occasion of Sister Mary’s Silver Jubilee, April
25, 1945 Mother Angelina, J.M.J., wrote to the Glowrey
family, “That good soul is far too busy.... What fine
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work she docs, and how much more she would do had she
only the time. Although fifty-nine years old now, she is
still full of energy and zeal and acts as one of twenty-five
years.... May God give her strength to carry on still
many years. ... Oh! we need lady doctors so badly, ones
with the spirit of self-sacrifice.”
By this time the annual number of midwifery cases at
St. Joseph’s Hospital was approximately 3.000, with one
doctor to look after them and the general cases as well.
There had been only the one period of respite when Sister
Veronica, M.D., was with her.
This was the busy Sister Doctor who longed for profes­
sional helpers. She wrote, “Years ago, 1 felt an intense
desire to multiply myself a thousand, may, ten thousand
times, and that longing grows more intense each day. How
can it be realized? We must have many Catholic training
schools for nurses and midwives, not to speak of pharmacists
and dentists; we must have Catholic hospitals from Cape
Cormorin to the Himalayas!”
In 1922, she had planned her strategy'. “Our task is but to
fill the water pots—to perform our ordinary, daily duties
to the best of our ability, even as the waiters at the Marriage
Feast of Cana.... We leave it to Him to transfer our
water into wine, and even though we hear Him answer ‘My
hour is not yet come’, we shall keep our eyes fixed with
loving confidence on our Blessed Mother... .who has so
quickly seen the need and has already whispered. ‘There is
no wine’.
Finally in 1942, her hour came, and she began working
feverishly to obtain her objectives. She made contact with
all the Indian Catholic Hospitals, with the sisters engaged
in the medical apostolate, with the Indian clergy and hierarchy. Sister Mary was 55 years of age. Life in Guntur was difficult as vocations and financial aid from Holland

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were cut off. There was wartime food rationing and fam­
ine caused by drought. Sister Mary, in one of her letters
home, remarked, that “most people live constantly on the
borderline of starvation”. So in the midst of the Second
World War, the meeting of July 1943, in Guntur resulted in
the Catholic Hospital Association of India, which would
provide the assistants she had prayed for during her twentythree years in India.
After the inauguration of the Calholic Hospitals’ Asso­
ciation in 1943, Sister Mary was appointed President, a
position she held untilJDecembei 1951. From that date she
remained on the Board of the Association as First VicePresident until October 1956, six months before her death.
Her Sisters tell us, “Sister rarely missed the Annual Conven­
tion even if it meant a few days’ uncomfortable travelling”..
In October, 1956, she was confined to her bed of suffering,
but she had the great satisfiction of hearing that the Annua)
Convention held in Calcutta had been most successful..
At this 1956 meeting a resolution was passed that Sister
Mary, the Foundress and first President of C.H.A., be
given the title ‘President Emeritus’ in grateful recognition
for all she had done for the Association throughout its
existence. During her last illness the C.H.A. had a very
special place in her suffering prayers.
During these fourteen years in office, Sister Mary
attended every annual Convention of the C.H.A. from 1944
through 1951. She was in Holland as a delegate to the
General Chapter of the Society of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
during the 1952 meeting in Calcutta, and could not attend
the 1953 Convention in Nagpur because of illness. How­
ever, she came to the Bangalore Convention in 1954 to be
with her Association for the last time.
While in Holland in 1952, Sister Mary had to enter a
Netherland Hospital for major surgery, which though im-

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mediately successful, was the prelude to the suffering which
was to end her life. Her sister, Mrs. Connellan, travelled
frcm Australia to Holland to be near her duringthe European
visit, and returned with her to India, staying four months
in Guntur.
After recovering from the operation, Sister Mary and
her companions went to Ireland to see if Indian sisters
could train as doctors in Cork. She met Monsignor Reidy
of Tralee, the priest w'ho had guided her to a religious voca­
tion. She stopped in Rome where Mother Mary Martin,
Foundress of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, came from
Naples to meet her and discuss mutual problems.
She returned to Guntur in March 1953, to recommence
her medical work at St. Joseph’s Hospital. In September
she entered St. Martha's Hospital in Bangalore for cataract
surgery which was successful. Her eye sight had been bad
for years but she had never complained about it. In De­
cember she had another operation in Madras for the re­
moval of a growth, as she had in the Netherlands. There
was no diagnosis of malignancy and Sister Mary was soon
back at her medical work in Guntur. In Europe she had
secured much-needed hospital equipment and this was
a great relief to her.
Her health continued to deteriorate ; nd she had a fourth
operation at the Society’s own hospmil St. Philomena’s in
Bangalore. When discharged, “she made a desperate effort
to be her former self” one of th.
ers remarked, and
returned to Guntur to welcome the n
doctor, a Jay woman.
She began to suffer great pain, and had difficulty walking,
and often had to retire to bed each c x During 1955 and
1956 her condition became worse, and the cancer began to
affect her bones, causing acute sufferi 'g. She found want­
ing very difficult, but continued to
with her very large
correspondence.
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“One of the J.M.J. Sisters describes the scene in the
sick room: “To the amusement and perhaps annoyance of
the Nursing Sisters, her bed was covered with papers of every
conceivable kind. In fact, it was like a paper stall in a little
disorder. Sister Mary always possessed a dry sense of
humour and shared in the remarks passed in her presence,
but no improvements came.”
At last her condition became so serious that her Superiors
decided that Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart must leave the
unbearably hot plains of Guntur and go to their hospital
at Bangalore to be under the care of Sister Veronica (Dr.
Pitt).
Leaving the area of her life’s work was a dreadful wrench
for Sister Mary, but she was a pattern of perfect obedience
in going without a murmur. With her medical knowledge
she must have realized that there would be no return. In
April, 1956, Sister Veronica and one of the Dutch nursing
Sisters escorted her to their Bangalore Convent and there
she spent the last suffering year of her life.
it vas not long till she was completely bed-ridden. Des­
pite the constant intense pain in her spine and limbs, she
tried to occupy every waking moment of her day. She
was alert to all that went on in the Convent and took part
in all the religious exercises she could share. Her Rosary
was continually by her and was used very frequently.
Part of her time was given to the translating of the revis­
ed Holy Rule from Dutch into English, a task set her by the
Reverend Mother, who knew she must have some work to
occupy her mind. When any movement of the arm became
too difficult—her left arm she could not move at all—she
had the Rule Book suspended above her bed and turned
over the leaves with a stick. She had to lie flat on her back.
Yet she worked on correspondence connected with the
Catholic Hospitals’ Association and, at the command of her
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superior, she wrote her autobiogiaphy. Thus Sister Mary
progressed in her aposloiate of suffering.
On November 21, 1956, the Feast of Our Lady’s Presen­
tation, she was sent a new and lasting cross. In trying to
help her nurse, she grasped the rail of her bed w ith her good
right arm. But the bone had become brittle under the in­
fluence of the cancer and the arm broke. The doctors tried
to mend it but without avail. This accident meant the
close of her writing career. She just had to lie on her bed
daily becoming worse, accepting God’s Holy Will w'hichshe
had always sought to do, with perfect resignation, her only
regret, in her own words, “I have not done enough. I could
have done more”. But where would she have found time
to do more?
In Holy Week, 1957, Sister Mary took a turn for the
worse. She was glad to be sent the extra suffering at the
time Our Lord’s Passion and Death were commemorated.
Sister Veronica who wras celebrating her Silver Jubilee
had gone to Guntur on Palm Sunday, and since Sister Mary
did not w'ant the Jubilee postponed because of her grave
condition, it was decided that upon her return the Bangalore
Convent would celebrate on Low Sunday. Sister Mary
had written verse throughout her life, and now, despite the
pain she was in, composed songs for the occasion, and lis­
tened to the rehearsing. She had asked the Sisters to pray
that she would live until this great event of her Doctor's
Jubilee was over.
During these few months before her death, she wras
nominated by the National Council of Catholic Women
of America as one of the outstanding leaders of Asia, and
was invited to visit the United States.
Archbishop Thomas often came to see her in these final
days. Finally the superior of St. Philomena’s Hospital,
Bangalore, sent a message to the Catholic Hospital Associa-

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tion office, “On the fifth of May 1957, at St. Stanislaus Con­
vent, Bangalore, Reverend Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart
passed to her eternal rest after many months of suffering
which she bore with remarkable patience and fortitude.’*
Personal Tributes

Reverend Father James S. Tong, S. J., Executive Director
of Sister Mary’s Association, wrote in “Medical Service”:
“Since her arrival in India in 1920, Sister Mary had seen
the urgent need of co-operation in our medical work and
especially the establishment of a Catholic Medical College
where our Catholic medical personnel could be trained
in sound medical practice and ethical principles. It was
for these reasons that she worked so ardently for the
Association of the Catholic Hospitals in India.

1

3

“Her long and wide experience of medical work in India
gave her a broad vision of the needs of our missions.
It was this, which, together with her deep faith, made her
opinion on medical problems of such great value to those
who sought her guidance and advice.

“To those members of our Association who have been in
close contact with her for the last fifteen years, her death
comes as great personal loss, and the Association has lost
a true friend and guide.
“It is now from heaven that she will continue her work
for the medical apostolate in India, and it will be a future
generation which will reap the harvest of so much toil
and suffering, by which she has sown the seeds of a rich
harvest of souls. This is an occasion for all of us to renew'
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the fervour of our prayers that her dream of a Catholic
Medical College for India may soon be realized.
Mother Anna Bengal,
in her letter of condo­
lence to the Mother Superior of St. Joseph’s Convent, Guntur
referred to Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Glowery’s found­
ing of the Catholic Hospitals Association and her insistence
on the need of a Catholic Medical College.
It is, indeed,
a great necessity which becomes clearer every day, she said,
“although, at the time Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart ad­
vocated it, it required great vision”.
Through their apostolate the lives of Sister Mary and
Mother Dengel were interwoven, Dr. McLaren having been
the shuttle. As a young woman in Austria, Anna Dengel
responded to Dr. McLaren’s appeal, studied medicine in
Cork, Ireland, to get the required British medical degree for
India, and went as a lay doctor to St. Catherine’s Hospital,
Rawalpindi, in 1920, the same year Mary Glowreycame to
South India. After a few years she returned to Europe and
“pr ^eededlo the United States to continue Dr. McLaren’s
sc.- rch for vocations. The search resulted in the founding
of the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, and in
1926, Dr. Joanna Lyons, one of the first Medical Missipii
Sifters was in Rawalpindi.
Miss Anna Brennan, LL.B., a lawyer who practiced up to
the time of her death in 1962, was at the University of
Melbourne with Mary Glowrey, and later worked with her
on the pioneer committee of the Catholic Woman s Social
Guild. Writing in the Guild’s official journal, THE HORIZON
• ' July 1957, stated that “hers wTas not a personality that
^mediately ‘hit the eye’.
“‘A swreet girl’, wre remarked at an age when such a ver­
dict w'as almost a disparagement. We, in our assertive
x outh, our callow strength and assured wisdom were going
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to reform the World, not conform to it. We, who are still
talking to a world which seems singularly unimpressed with
our eloquence, thought her something of a mouse. Yet,
even then, she was beginning as she meant to go on. It was
only years afterwards that 1 learned”, wrote Miss Brennan,
“that her allowance of pocket-money went mostly into the
pockets of the poor—those sad products of poverty and sick­
ness which came into the ambit of a medical student’s life”.
Reverend Father K. Peter, the Spiritual Director of St.
Joseph’s Convent, Guntur, for eleven years, gives testimony:
“By faith and grace she (Sister Mary) inculcated in others
who came in contact with her, the inner life of the Holy
Spirit that dominated her wisdom and work. Only very few
can combine an interior tenderness of love and exterior
devotion in the discharge of their duties. As regards my
personal opinion without fear of contradiction, I can say
that Sister Mary led an inspired and angelic life.”
Sister Mary Glowrey’s influence did not end with her
bodily death. She lives on in the Catholic Hospital Association and St. John’s Medical College, which began to admit
students in 1963—an answer to her prayer 42 years before.
Humbly, Sister Mary had put it into words:
“It was while making the Stations of the Cross in the
novitiate one day in 1921, that I received the inspiration
that what was really needed in India to train future
I medical personnel was a Catholic Medical College”.

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the catholic medical college
The President »f India, Dr. Zakirr Ho*

Hospital Association in New Dein .

Ot The Standing C—“

Most

XTnd
0
lore and Secretary to the C.B.C.I., stated.
I

B”P-

of the Sacied Heart. M.D.. ot
"The late Sister Mary c.
, of the Congregation of Jesus,
Melbourne and a religious <
started the Catholic,JKospitals’
Mary and Joseph, in Guntur
quest the Bishop of Guntur addressed
Association. At he. iC'
in 1942 and obtained their
'thTmembers of the Hierarchy
Its three main pbjectjvgjapproval for the proposal.
were:
to increase the quantity and quality of the medi..
service available to the people of India.
2. to increase the strength of the nursing staffs in on

1

hospitals.
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3. to work towards the establishment of a Catholic
Medical College”.
The “Bishop of Guntur” had been himself.
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Bangalore was a city of destiny. Both the Archbishop
and Sister Mary spent their last days at St. Philomena’s
Hospital, Bangalore. Sister Mary died in 1957, a few years
before the medical college was opened in temporary quar­
ters; the Archbishop in 1968, only a few months before the
formal opening of the new medical college building. He is
interred in a crypt in front of the main altar of St. Xavier’s
Cathedral; Sister Mary’s grave is in the diocesan cemetery
along the road which leads to the 160-acre college site, situa­
ted about three miles from the centre of the city of Bangalore.
Medical students travelling along this way in the years to
come may well reflect upon the history of their school.
At the first general meeting held in Bangalore on April
21,1944, the first resolution of the Catholic Hospital Associa­
tion reads:

The Association aims at the establishment of a Catholic
Medical College.
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How did the Sisters approach this formidable project?
A few months after the above meeting at the First Conven­
tion held at Hy derabad November 25-26,1944, with Bishop
P. Thomas of Bangalore again presiding, the tactics of the
campaign were formulated. Bishop Thomas was nomina­
ted to obtain the support of the hierarchy, a committee was
appointed with power to co-opt new members, to raise
funds, and to form sub-committees in India and other coun­
tries.
This Catholic Medical College Committee met on April

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■zrQsyny-.Jiu— 1 1

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c A
Convent Bezwada,now Vijayawada,
18^J945_at_StAnnes_C-------- rT^nwithIHopmg
<h’ K isbna River.
g„e„ bonks
St. Anne’s and IdQthgrEhzabeth,i--,-T.^i7d^;fIhe
of St. Annejdayed a prominent part^
Anne,s Mater.
Catholic Hospitals’ Associat
nity Hospital that Sister Mary
tQ
superior Mother Ange^ina^^ a
Association and to

advice

ted bnepi,. i.™., *
away in Guntur”.
presided at this first
His Excellency, Bishop D. Gr
,P
the
medical committee meeting m J y
.,
He menSisters not to be discouraged y aPp^
de t0 estabtioned that for twenty years efforts had be
,ish a Catholic University for men -'^t

members of the Catholic Med.ca! Ct> g
made an a<«T« l« ‘“to°®"uponherself .0 propose ■“

XX Laeliria. Society of

be President and T.casnrety and Mottey
Franciscan Missionary of M, ry,
Laetitia
animously passed by the members Smc
„as working io dose eooporatton ■.■.Mte Pa

Fathers who were very help ,
and Treasurer were combined

effective

functioning.
this meeting Sister M. Laetitia was enAs a result of
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powered to form a managing body in Patna composed of
Catholics, but not necessarily members of the C.H.A.
Bishop Thomas of Bangalore was asked to send a cir­
cular letter to the members of the hierarchy requesting that
one Sunday should be set apart for the Catholic Hospitals’
Association in each diocese, the funds collected to go to
the Medical College Fund.
At the next Committee meeting held in Nagpur November
13, 1945, plans for a Hospital Sunday to raise funds for the
establishment of a Medical College and for interesting the
Catholic public in the scheme were made. It was also re­
solved that His Excellency the Apostolic Delegate be ap­
proached to write to His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of
Propaganda to secure his approval and whatever financial
assistance possible. It was decided to invite Major General
J. P. Huban, Surgeon-General of the Government of
Madras to become an honorary member.
When the Catholic Medical College Committee met
again at St. Thomas Convent, Mylapore, June 22, 1946,
all the members were present and reported on the result
of the above resolutions.

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Sister Mary Laetitia, S. C. M. M„ President
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, J. M. J., President of
C. H. A.
Mother M. Kinesburge, F. M. M., Secretary
Sister Elizabeth, S. A. S„ Member
Major General Huban, Surgeon General, Madras.
Major General Huban had been invited to advise on de­
tails of location, finance and construction of the medical
college. Sister M. Laetitia was authorised to have leaflets
printed and circulated to the Bishops for Hospital Sunday
in August.
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A Donation of $ 10,000 had been received from the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, Rome, and the
Apostolic Delgate, Most Rev. Leo P. Kierkels, C. P, told
the C. H. A. President “although it may not go very far in
such a vast enterprise, it means at least more than verbal
encouragement and I hope it may stimulate others to pro­
mote that most important project”.
At the next General Meeting held in Ootacamund,
November 18, 1946, the local committee which Sister Laetitia
had formed in Patna was approved.

Rev. A. Wildermuth, S. J., Vice-President
Re\. M. Moran, S. J.
Sister M. Elise, M. D., S. C. M. M
Sister Ignatius Marie, S. C. M. M., Secretary.

The Standing Committee of the C. B. C. 1. at their meeting
in Bangalore on October 18, 1945, not knowing of the above
committee had appointed a sub-committee consisting of:

His Excellency Bishop Thomas, Bangalore
Doctor Sister Mary. J. M. J., Guntur
Doctor Sister Alma. S. ( - M. M., Rawalpindi.
Sister M. Laetitia, S. C. M. M., Patna
Sister Elizabeth, S. A. S Bezwada.
'
I to study the question of the Medical
They were appointed
College, and present concrete proposals.

The duplication was >. .:'cd as follows: “At the meeting
of the Standing Comm uec held in 1946, His Eminence
Valerian Cardinal Gracias (i hen Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay)
and the Riglit Rev. A. F. Wildermuth, S. J., were appointed
members of the Special Committee constituted for the estab41

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lishment of the College. There were then two Medical
College Committees functioning, one appointed by the Stand­
ing Committee, C. B. C. I., and the other by the Catholic
Hospitals’ Association. With the approval of the Standing
Committee, the two committees were merged into one. At
this meeting it was also agreed that all funds raised by
collections should be held in trust by the newly proposed
Treasurer, Bishop Wildermuth of Patna.”
Sister Laetitia as President of the Committee had been a
dynamic force in promoting the idea of a medical college.
In an article about the proposed College, which she wrote
for the first issue of ‘The Catholic Hospital’, November 1944,
entitled ‘WHERE’, she mentions all the factors which were
later on considered by C. B. C. I. in selecting a location for
rhe College. There was never any doubt in her writing that
the Medical College, would not become a reality. Her
article “The Catholic Medical College” in June 1945 issue
of ‘The Catholic Hospital’ leaves no doubt in the mind of
the reader, either :
“IT IS COMING
“There is going to be a Catholic Medical College. The
Catholic Hospitals’ Association is working on it now. Nat­
urally the materialization of such a scheme will take time.”
In January 1947 she took up the pen again, and called
the Medical College—“The King’s Business.”
The Doctor of the future must be well and properly
trained and is it too much to ask that his moral ethics be
above reproach? Are we going to do anything to teach him?
When is our Medical College going to come into being? Are
we straining every nerve and sinew to bring it about soon?
“As Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart has remarked:
‘The Catholic Medical College is not just one more College
erected for the purpose of conferring a degree nor is it for
the purpose of raising Catholic prestige in a hitherto negleci-

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•cd field, but it is a mce^lfron^
Ahf^h
mid morals.” (Sister Laetitia, a convert, had trained
’secular institutions as had Sister Mary).
.
“Haste! Haste! Haste!
“And in the words of Sir Henry Holland .reviewing the
Shore report in the journal of the Chnst.an Medica^^Asso­
ciation of India: ‘The King’s business requires haste/Th
is our King’s business, the business of the King of King,

.and Lord of Lords’.”
In the same issue following the above article is the
Medical College Fund report:

“From Congregation of the Propaga­
S 10.000/tion of the Faith, Rome
Rs. 7,278/15/6
In Fixed Deposit
Rs. 2,678/15/9
In Current Account
Rs. 506/0 /3
Expenditures

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delegate to the 1947

I

Ch'pw'i d?StaEy of Caltolio Medical

I

C. miedeg Sep.ember 14.15,194S. a. St Sumslaps convent. Bangalore. Bishop Thomas reported that the
money sent by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda had
been placed in a separate account by the Apostolic Delegate.
Bishop Wildermuth, S. J. as Treasurer of the sub-committee
was to invest the funds collected in India.
There is interesting correspondence between Sister Mary
and^er Ignatitus Marie regarding the printing of leaflets
for “Hospital Sunday” 1949 for all the dioceses of ndia.
Ranchi Press printed the leaflets in English, H.ndiand Urdu,
and the Telegu circulars were printed in Guntur. XV h
Sister Mary learned that the northern press could not sup-

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ply leaflets in the other languages she wrote to Sister Ignatius
Marie:
“I have written to Rt. Rev. Bishop Thomas, the refuge of
the unfortunate in these parts. Arrangements have been
made for the printing of the Tamil leaflets in Bangalore,
and they will be sent from there to the Bishops of the various
Tamil areas
Fortunately there is a Malayali graduate
here. With her help I have arranged for the leaflets to be
printed in the Malayalam language in Malabar itself and
distributed there. Canarese was still not accounted for.
1 was surprised to learn that Canarese leaflets were necessary
in order to reach 400,000 odd Catholics in Goa, as well as
the Mangaloreans. Their mother tongue is Konkani, but it
is not a written language (though a script is being devised).
The language spoken in Mysore is also Canarese. In cal­
culating the number of leaflets for distribution we have taken
into account the number of the Catholics in the diocese and
the approximate percentage of literarcy. Mysore tops the
list in literacy.”
At the Catholic Medical College Committee meeting at
Rosary Convent, Hyderabad, on the morning of November
30, 1951, the following members were present:
Sister Mary of ihe SaCred Heart, J. M. J., Guntur
Sister Elizabeth. S. A. S., Bezwada
Sister Ignatius Marie, S. C. M. M., Mandar
Mother Kinesburge, F. M. M., Bombay
Since the three year term of office for members of the
Committee formed in Ootacamund in November 1946 had
expired a new Committee was elected consisting of the
following:
Sister Ignatius Marie, S. C. M. M., Mandar, President

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Rev. R. Bohn, S. J., Patna. Vice President.
Rt. Rev. A. Wildermuth. S. J.. Patna, Treasuier
Rev. F. Martinsek. S. J.. Patna, Secietars

Members:
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart. J. M. J., Guntur
Sister M. Barbara, S. C. M. M.. M. D„ Mandar
Sister Elizabeth. S. A. S„ Bezwada
Mother M. Kinesburge. F. M. M., Bombay.
Mother Anna Dcngel. S. C. M. M., had been invited.
The minutes of the Catholic Hospital Association meeting

held later that day read:
“It was proposed by Mother Anna Dengel, S. C. M. M.,
and seconded by Mother M. Kinesburge. F.M.M.,that
the following suggestions should be sent to the C. B.C. 1.
1 The urgent necessity of a Catholic Medical College to
train Catholic doctors, and the difficulty of Catholic medical
Medical
students obtaining admission to the Government
----------Colleges.
2. The necessity to decide where the medical college
might be located.
3. That His Excellency. Bishop Thomas, should be
appointed to go abroad to seek financial help.
To the above was added a proposal made by Mother
Modesta, F. M. M., and seconded by Sister Mary of the
Sacred Heart “that we should write to the Holy Father
through the Internuncio, telling him of the urgent need of a
Catholic Medical College in India, and soliciting his help".
By August 6, 1952 at the meeting in Our Lady of Pro­
vidence Convent, Calcutta, the C. H. A. Sisters could record
that the C. B. C. I. were taking charge of the Catholic Medical

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College project. At the next meeting at St. Joseph’s
Convent, Nagpur, November 4, 1953,
“A proposal was unanimously carried that a letter be
written to the Executive Committee of the Medical College
in Patna, asking them to consider handing over the funds and
scheme of the Catholic Medical College to the C.B.C.I.
There is now definite action being taken by Archbishop
Mathias in Madras regarding the building.”
The action was real and concrete. The Most Reverend
Louis Mathias, S. D. B., Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore,
prepared a “Report on the Catholic Medical College and
Hospital” which was submitted to the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of India, during the Marian Year at their
General Meeting in Bombay, December 4-8, 1954.
The subject was raised once again at the meeting of the
Standing Committee held in October 1956. The members
declared that the college was a matter of vital necessity.
With the increasing number of Catholic hospitals in the
country, the need for staffing them with qualified doctors,
equipping our youth with sound social and moral teachings
in medical science, and the difficulty of securing admission
for Catholic students in existing medical colleges, ways and
means had to be found for bringing the project to fruition.
But the problem of raising sufficient funds was still a for­
midable obstacle. At the November 1957 meeting, the
Committee expressed the view that suitable students could
be sent to Catholic Medical Colleges abroad instead of em­
barking on such a costly venture. The concept of sending
students abroad fortraining was not popularly received, as
it was considered to be a compromise measure. Thus in
December 1958, His Grace Archbishop Mathias was com­
missioned “to formulate a scheme with the aid of medical
and financial experts to explore the possibility of financing,
the project.” With the end in view, Archbishop Mathias-

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visited several places, met leading Catholic doctors,
obtained their opinions, and prepared a second report,
which, was submitted to the Hierarchy on March 1, 1959.
He asked for their views concerning the feasibility of the
project and the selection of a suitable site.”
For the C. B. C. I. Conference of July 1960 a booklet
was submitted by “The Planning Committee appointed by
His Eminence Valerian Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of
Bombay, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee
Conference of Catholic Bishop-, of India.” It was entitled
“St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore—Mysore State”,
as a “Challenge to the Catholics of India”.
Between the years 1954 and 1960 a complete survey was
made of the places suggested for the location of the medical
college. The Second Report on ‘The Catholic Medical
College and Hospital’ prepared by Most Reverend Louis
Mathias, S. D. B., March 1, 1959, for the C. B. C. I. gives a
resume of the opinions of the Ordinaries, and the advan­
tages and disadvantages of the various locations.
A brief summary of the survey reads:

“Changanacherry — only a small hospital here
Ernakulam
— not under the present governmc it
Nagpur
— a beautiful site offered some years
back now occupied by our new college
some years ago conditio " vere
Patna
favourable and there was go hope
of getting substantial help for such
a project, this is no longer the case
there are already two Goxcrnment
Madras
medical colleges; the numoer of
Catholic doctors is much i duced
_
place not so easily accessible, few
Mysore
Catholics, no Catholic doctor^ and
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no possibility of sufficient clinical
material.”

I

Four locations studied in detail in twenty-four pages
of the above Report, were again reviewed in the St. John’s
Medical College booklet of July 1960. They were:

“New Delhi

Bombay

Managalore

three well established medical schools,
cost of construction high, climate
would necessitate additional expendi­
ture in construction, not centrally
located to bulk of Catholic popula­
tion.
three established medical schools,
cost of land and construction high.
Church property not well located,
long standing association of medical
facilities with homeopathic medicine.”

Bangalore was finally selected for its climate, central
position, easy accessibility for bulk of Catholic population,
low cost of living, low cost of building, suitable social sur­
roundings for medical experts from abroad, good local fa­
cilities for clinical teaching.
When the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India met
in September, 1960, they decided to establish the College
with an attached hospital at Bangalore. In February they
had already said “that if the medicial college is to do
credit to the Church and contribute to the advancement of
medical science, the standards in the faculty and students
must be as high as possible”.
His Holiness Pope John XXIII of revered memory,
agreed to the College being called after his patron saint, as
a mark of his personal interest in the project, and of his

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approval of its aims and ideals. The College was accord­
ingly named St. John’s Medical College and opened in tem­
porary premises at Bangalore in July, 1963.
In the course of their Joint Pastoral issued in connection
with the XXXV11I International Eucharistic Congress, held
in Bombay in 1964, the Catholic Bishops of India announced
their choice of the College Project as the Chief Memorial of
the Congress. This choice received the warm approval
of His Holiness Pope Paul VI. who sent a gift of S 50,000,
followed by another S 20,000. His Holiness has also es­
tablished a scholarship in the College in his own name to
be awarded to the best all-round student completing the
M.B.B.S. Course.
The Corner Stone of the College was blessed by His
Holiness at Bombay during the principal function of the
Congress, held on December 3. 1964, at which he officiat­
ed. It was laid at the College site on July 27. 1965 by His
Excellency V. V. Giri, then the Governor of Mysore, and
now Vice President of India.
The First Phase of the building plan for the College is
almost complete. In 1968 classes which until then had been
held in St. Mary’s Industrial School began in the new
Teaching Centre, and students moved into the Hostel blocks
with a Kitchen-Dining block attached. Connected with the
preliminary architectural planning were a group of U.S.,
A.I.D. experts, namel) Dr. J. R. McGibony, M. D., Dr.
E. H. Holmes, M. D., and Dr. I. Taylor, M. D.. together
with Dr. H. Purcel. M. D. who was on the staff of Holy
Family Hospital. New Delhi, and Rev. F. N. Loesch, S. J.,
then Rector of St. Xavier’s School, Delhi (formerly ViceChairman and now Chairman of the Planning Committee of
the C.B.C.I. Society for Medical Education). As Superior of
Patna Mission, it was Father Loesch, S. J., who supported
Sister Laetitia when the college project started back in 1944.

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The Second Phase of the plan will include the Hospital,
Nurses Hostel and School, Residential Quarters for medical
staff. During the last phase it is proposed to provide a
College of Nursing, a Dental College, a Convalescent Home,,
and a Rehabilitation Centre. The building plan has been
entrusted to Professor Johannes Krahn, Architect, Frank­
furt, Germany, assisted by Messrs Powar & Powar, Archi­
tects, New Delhi. This future development depends upon
the finances available.
In 1959, Archibishop Mathias told the C.B.C.I. “There is
already a fund of nearly one lakh for the medical college.”
This included the money collected through the Catholic
Hospital Association and the contribution from Propaganda
Fide in 1946. Through the years, “The Catholic Hospital”,
C.H.A. journal, had faithfully reported each contribution
which had trickled in during the decade of C.H.A. activity
in fund raising for the Medical College. The last statement
of accounts submitted on February 28, 1955 by Bishop.
Wildermuth, S. J. of Patna totals Rs. 47,038/5/8, excluding
the $ 10,000 from Propaganda Fide. Sister Mary and the
Catholic Hospital Association had only begun to fill “the
water pots”. Convinced of the value of the College Pro­
ject, as much as 95 per cent of the capital cost of construc­
tion and equipment has been contributed by MISEREOR,
for the First Phase of the Project. Help has also been receiv­
ed from the Holy See, and Church and cultural organiza­
tions abroad.
Dr. L. Monteiro, Dean of St. John’s Medical College, is
largely responsible for bringing the College to its present
stage of development. Formerly Dean of the Topiwala
National Medical College, Bombay, Dr. Montiero is VicePresident of the Catholic Hospital Association. The College
is owned and conducted, through a Governing Council,
by the C.B.C.I. Society for Medical Education, registered.
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under the Mysore Societies Registration Act, 1960. One
of the two medical colleges in the Bangalore Umvers. y
St John’s has been included in the prog'amme of medical
Search and post-graduate studies, and Dr. Monteiro is a

Member of the Committee set up by the Government

Mvsore to carry out this programme.
Rom the beginning the College has had the fullest cooneration of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Congregation
■n conducting
conducting its
its clinical
clinical teaching
teaching in
in St.
St Martha’s Hospital,
where the
the students
students of
of the
the College
College are
are being trained in a
atmosphere of dedication. St. Martha’s Hospital iis th
oldest Catholic hospital in India founded by women r -•
,, who were the rirst con
gious, the Good Shepherd■ Sisters
The School of Nursgregation to come to Mysore in 1854.
the largest Catholic
ing which was opened in 1935 is now
the Hospital affiliated with St.
school in India. In 1965
teaching hospital. Its fifteen
John’s Medical College as a
staffed by highly qualified
specialized departments are
financed by “MISEREOR
specialists. The expansion was
as a part of the College project.
At the beginning of the 6th year of its existence 968-69
the College has . .otal of 259 students on its rolls. Of
S are
Shun.
Which supported Sister Mary in the foundation of Cft ■
Tn her autobic: . Teal notes written at the request of her
c •.. . s I ry recalled the objectives of the Catholic
superiors, Sisk. .Ury reca‘‘“
aJ„rediction, which has
Hospitals’ As,o-:ation and made a preaicr or,
‘“ae'wrale. “I1 first purpose was w leach and safeguard
Catholic prinrif'-s m medical and nursing practice, and c
“ hhshmem ' . Catholic Mod.ca! Cofioge in ndm hecom.

one of the foremost aims of the Associati n.
mous cost involve d still prevents the fulfillment ot this ai .. If I die it will come."

51

HE AL 7^
---- 5

oo<>
8ANG^>^
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ITS GUIDING SPIRIT

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The Dean of St. John’s Medical College is now the
guardian of the ethics and principles of medical practice
referred to by Sister Mary. Doctor Monteiro as head of the
only national project of the Church in India with lay ad­
ministration is ever conscious of the responsibility entrusted
to him. In conversation he gently emphasizes that as the
representative of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of
India, he reflects their ideas. All things personal and local
must be submerged so that the Church of India may teach
through the College.
From its founding the Catholic Hospital Association of
India, whose Vice-President is Dr. Monteiro, has looked to
the wisdom of the Hierarchy to direct its steps in the medical
mission apostolate. A succession of Bishops have one after
another brought an Association formed “out of nothing” to
maturity. In its turn the C.H.A. has helped augment the
effectiveness of the Indian apostolate by introducing pro­
fessional medical personnel to assist the social and educa­
tional work of the Church.
The hierarchial support began at the turn of the century
when Most Reverend John Aelen, Archbishop of Madras,
brought Sisters trained for medical work to his diocese, and
convinced Rome that they must be permitted to practice
their profession. About the same time in 1908 he sent
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Thomas Pothacamury, born at Ravipadu in Guntur District
on September 2, 1889, to the Papal Seminary in Kandy,
Ceylon. Ordained on December 17,1916, Father Potha­
camury served in Madras for 33 years, and was Editor of the
Catholic weekly “The New Leader” for 20 of these years.
He was the 16th Indian prelate when he was consecrated on
April 9, 1940 by Most Rev. Leo Kierkels, Apostolic Dele­
gate, for the newly erected diocese of Guntur. There he and
the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph met, and the Catholic
Hospital Association was founded. During the first years
Bishops presided at the Association meetings, and from
November 1944 until the present, except on two occasions,
the head of the Diocese or his delegate opened the annual
C.H.A. Convention. Their advice on these occasions pro­
vided the inspiration for the Sisters to continue to work for
a strong unifying medical association.
After the annual Convention in Nagpur. November 1953,
when the C.H.A.was ten years old, formal correspondence
began with the C.B.C.l. which lasted over a period of two
years. A letter dated November 9, 1953 from Mother
M. Kinesburge, F. M. M., President of C.H.A. to the Most
Reverend F. Pcrier, S. J., of Calcutta. Chairman of the
C.B.C.L, summarizes the meeting and the needs of the
Association.
“The following are some of the important discussions
and recommendations:
1. We have felt above all the necessity of having a
Bishop as our Ecclesiastical Protector. This request has
already been made to you, and we hope that it will be
dealt with favourably.
2. The Medical College Committee of the Catholic
Hospitals’ Association was asked at this time to prepare a
statement of the present status of the project.
3. The necessity to have our Catholic doctors and nurses

53

well trained in their ethical principles was forcibly brought
to our attention again. A partial solution would be the
forming of more Medical and Nursing Guilds ; the distribu­
tion of text books on Ethics to Catholic doctors and nurses;
and the appointment of chaplains in each diocese who will
care for their instruction and spiritual direction. (In
Nagpur, the Very Rev. Monisgnor E. Deage, Vicar General,
assigned the Rev. Dr. R. Fallerior as Director).
4. Since birth control and such practices are becoming
common knowledge, even in high schools, would it seem
feasible that such schools be recommended to have a course
of instructions for inculcating sound teaching on the subject?
5. The C.H.A. hopes to have an official Code of Ethics
for doctors, which will be published in the journal CATHOLIC HOSPITAL within the next few months.
6. The delegates were aware of the many problems in
connection with lay missionaries from foreign countries. They
made the suggestion that a guide be prepared by the C.B.C.L
which would assist these good people in adapting themselves
to India and provide for them a definite plan of work.
7. An interesting feature of this year’s meeting was a
Panel Discussion on Public Health, Nursing Education, an d
questions of general interest.”
When Archbishop Perier answered the C.HA. letter he
suggested that the Association choose a Bishop as their
advisor who in turn could contact the Standing Committee
of the Bishops’ Conference. He commented encouraging!}
on the medical college.
.
“We are still studying the possibilities of a Catholic
Medical College with hospital attached. The estimate seems
formidable and beyond our means. On the other hand such
an Institution appears more and more to be a necessity.
If so, we are bound to start, trusting in Divine Provindence.'
From Bangalore Archbishop Thomas also wrote:

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’‘I am glad you are asking for an Episc^lProtectorforJhe

f

OtholintopitaiFA^so^a^

India is deeply interestedjnyour^^rk and a ox
>
^rtTt0 ^ Catholic Medical College. Archbishop
Mathias of Madras-Mylapore has offered to ta e P
project. He has a great deal of enthusiasm and Persev^
effort He can overcome all obstacles, however,
and trying they may bo. That is nty o«n P™1
perience in Madras when I was closely associated with h ,

and afterwards, too.”
History repeated itself at the Eleventh Annual Con
tion in Bangalore on November 25, 1954. S.ster Mary-of the
Sacred Heart was there and spoke at this her as
. ■
convention. Archbishop Thomas celebrated Holy Mass in
the Good Shepherd Church, and inaugurated the Cons en­
tion in Good Shepherd Hall. Most Reverend Leo P.^

Kierkels, C. P., former Apostolic Delegate to n ,
present. This gave pleasure to the delegates as these two
dignitaries graced the occasion of the first annual meeting
of the infant Association ten years previous \.
consecrated the C.H.A. to thehnmaculatej^
a tributno Our Lady-at the close the Marian Tear The
request for an ecclesiastical advisor was again submitted
to the C.B.C.I.
Early in 1955 His Eminence, Valerian Cardinal Gracias,
Archbishop of Bombay replied:
“With regard to your Organization, as Chairman of th

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Standing Committee. I write to inform you
ganization falls under the jectio^ ofjh^
of foe C.B.C.I., whose Director is the Most Rev Dr.^Attipetty, Archbishop of Verapoly, Latin Archbishops
House, Ernakulam-1. Please, therefore, m future cor­
respond directly with him. With every blessing ■
55

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Thus direct lines of communication between the C.B.C.I.
and C.H.A. were officially established, and Archbishop
Attipetty was C.H.A. advisor for the next ten years.
Later in the same year a second ADVENT for the Catho­
lic Hospital Association occurred. It is recorded in “The
Catholic Hospital”:
“The Annual Conference of the Catholic Hospitals’
Association, held in Patna in November 1955, was opened
by a Pontifical High Mass by His Excellency, Rt. Rev.
A. F. Wildermuth, S. J., at the Patna Women’s College.
The Conference turned out to be a milestone in the history
of the organization. Inaugurating the meeting for a group
of over 50 members from all over India, His Excellency
spoke warmly and encouragingly. Urging them on to per­
severance and greater achievement, His Excellency transla­
ted his good wishes into the most practical form of assistance
which has ever yet been granted the organization—namely,
the contribution of a priest who may act as spiritual ad­
visor and consultant.”
Until this time the Catholic Hospital Association had
only the hospital Sisters engaged in more than full time
professional work to carry on its activities. Therefore,
the Sisters eagerly accepted Bishop ^Wildermuth’s offer
hoping that through Jesuit assistance the Association in
India would grow as strong as its older sister organization
in America.
Years later commenting on the appointment. Reverend
Edward Mann, S. J. who was then Superior of the Jesuits of
Patna Mission, said that when he consulted the Intemuncio, Most Rev. Martin Lucas, S. V. D., regarding the matter,
the Internuncio gave his approval and recommended that
Father James S. Tong, S. J., a member of the Jesuit Mission
Band be the appointee. The official appointment was con­
veyed to the C.H.A. in a letter from Archbishop Attipetty.

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“I am happy to state that the members of the Standing
Comm ttee of he C.B.C.l. were pleased with your work,
X recognition of the services rendered by ~a-

tion thev have agreed to have Reverend Father Tong, S J.,

of your AssociatioiCHT^ under his d.rect.om and w.th
TJwAssociationno^^
~
c
suitant, but a Secretary 01 the CB.C-l.
-------- -------Birector, who would residjnDellm_„
Archbishop
’ When Most Rew J._R, Knox,succeeded Archbishop
Lucas as I^nTuncio to India, he continued generously to
support rhe Sisters and the C.H.A. It was he who welcoraed
His Holiness, Pope Paul VI to India when the Med1Ca
College P oj ct was selected by the Catholic Bishops of
J^dia as the Chief Memorial of the Eucharistic Congress,

it' was he who presided and blessed the opening of many
Catholic medical institutions throughout the county
p
until the day of his departure from India in 1967 he
involved in the medical relief program which he had se up
in the famine areas of Bihar with the help of th. Cong e
lion of Religious of India, who sent medical tean > of Sisters
to answer his appeal.
Archbishop Joseph Attipctty of Verapeiy

j

at the C.H.A. Convention in Bombay in .
junction with the Eucharistic Congress, r,
rmg to t
Medical College he told the Sisters, “1 am
cach one
vou legitimately feels proud of the selection oi me Congress
XX, X is a great triumphfor om C«th~.

tai Association”. He was
the Most Revejwd^gmnuc^ap^^,L. ■
.^^T^FAg^nhe qumquennud _----- ^ncc < t L_
FbcX Delhi, October 19, 1966, when the latter was
57

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named Chairman of the C.B.C.I. Commission on Social
Action.
The Catholic Hospitals today, as twenty-five years ago,
need the support and cooperation of the Bishops and the
Dioceses. To fully function the medical institutions must
•engage in educative, curative and preventive medicine.
To accomplish this they heed scientific equipping and pro­
fessional staffing, and the continuing support of the hier-archy as their GUIDING SPIRIT in this special apostolate of the Church.

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A RECORDING
To secure that unity which would give strength to the

-Catholic Hospital Association it was ecl
.topUb]lsh
•general meeting held in Bangalore, April 22,1944

a pamphlet or magazine”.
’id communities of Sisters engaged1 in medical
;ub-continent of India.
„rk
the”medical apostolate,
TO unite the
that w„rk well infomnand to keep the AstersHospital AssOciation.
ed, was an aim o
Marv had spread from
The Franciscan Mismmanes o,
rf
,cph
ootacamund north* to K,
■
of Cluny, the first active
g
of
?re_
had been in Pondicherry since
the Franciscan

rr^of St^wy ”°ae Angelshad already founded wo

■ Xmties o“ Sian Sisters. ™

of Mary Immaculate who arrtved . Nagpur n^
houses "throughout the ■n^Mataraja invited the Sisters of
f“hoK cLfo'f Menningen, Switzerland to Tmvancore
I”

Fr°m “‘sXFmnds rfifecomm™*'"’from

an «aXg Board member of C H A.

AlHhe^^isters must come to know each other.
59

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Ststlr M

tUr C°ntainS 3 n°tati0n made

r

Sister Mary after th.s meeting. “We left Bangalore for
™ , ,M°*er K'nesburge, Mother Sapienta from

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and spent

Patna accOmP^ed us

f

Mother Sapienta, Franciscan Missonary of M; ry was al
mtals™^11^1"'6”'16114 °f Nursing Service for a!1
hoshold Ih
? °f Hyderabad> and
first woman to
hold such a position. As Nursing Superintendent of the

unZ her
PItaI’ M°ther M- Kmesb^e, F.M.M., worked
under her supervision. They both contributed much to the
promotion of Catholic nursing education in India.
T e Sisters worked together during the few days
in
Guntur, and when Sister ''
J. » for
M. ~Laetitia, S.C.M.M, left
Patna she took with her the manuscript of the Catholic
Hospital Association jmeeting which was published in a
sixteen page Report printedJ at the Catholic Mission Press,.
Bettiah.
When the Association delegates met again at the first
wereemadOnVentHn intHyderabad’ November 25, decisions
were made regarding the name, size, scope of the journal

^theCathoh^Jjosp^s’, Association (IndiaBuX,
Ce_y on), and its djstributionjvas^jo^ free. Sister M.’
Laetitia was to be the editor.
The first issue bears the date November 1944
“Edited and Published by Sister Mary Laetitia
Medical Mission Sisters
Patna City
Printed at
The Catholic Press Bettiah”
Thus was launched THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL to.
provide regular
communication1 and keep the members of
------------------------60

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the Association professionally hifoimcd^ The magazine
register by the PostmasterjSeneral . Bihar and Orissa
Circle, February 13. 1945, in Patna.
of Mother Anna Dengel s
lhree'^™n^e foundnrg^f tire Soc.ety^l Quhohc
^^^^^^j^^^gSSHLWashmgton >
CThe

I

ARY” Vol l,No. l.October 1927. gives a bit of biograpjv•
^-A.s'^ Mal.y Lactitia Flinger was born in England but
came to the United States several years ago. She received
her training in Bellevue Hospital. New York Crty, and
joined the Society soon after her graduation. She was <
• first nurse to offer herself to the Society of Catholic Medical
to take
Missionaries. She left for England last April'1 U
. a six
obstetrics
months post graduate course in c
-------- at the Queen
London,
to fit her more for
Mary Maternity Hospital in
future work among the women of India... She will leave
for India in Novemder.”
Between December 22.
jvhen shejxached the new
Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi^built to replace Dr.
M^^TSTC^^^^
meeting Novem­
ber JQ44 Sister Laetitia had spent 17 years in India. She
h-i. V . pen the above mentioned hospitah in 1930 transTerred t' Child^re1fare andMidwifery Supervision in Dacca
for two years of public health visiting; then moved to
Dace f Mitford Hospital to act as Superintendent ot
Nurses, where she had experience in preparing student
nurses for the Bengal Nursing examination in Calcutta.
' After ten years in India she returned to America in 193S,
taking an overland route through Asia and Europe, the
excitn," details of which she narrated in a series of articles.
Cmistmas 1939. she is in the “old Cathedral’ in Patna
City. Her Sister companion wrote; "Pioneering is—an
She
experience. Sister M. Laetitia is a veteran at it

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surveyed the scene. ‘Well, we are beginning on nothing,,
as usual’ was her brief conunent. And then she ‘rolled up
her sleeves’ and went to work”.
At the time of the founding of the Catholic Hospital
Association in 1943, Sister Laetitia had been called back to
Dacca to set up two emergency hospitals for civilian war
casualties, which added 150 beds to the Mitford Hospital.
There she was in the midst of the most acute phase of the

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Bengal famine.
It was not a coincidence that Sister Mary of the Sacred
Heart and Sister M. Laetitia were united in literary work^
Dr. Anna Dengel, Editor of THE MEDICAL MISSION­
ARY, published in Washington, D. C., had printed articlesby Sister Mary, and had written about her. Sister Laetitia

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had been writing for it also.
So it was experienced writers that made THE CATHOLIC
HOSPITAL a vibrating voice, echoing the enthusiasm, the
pioneering spirit, andlhe daring planning of these medical
Sisters. Many Sisters contributed. Their origianl articles
show a knowledge of what was going on in the world’s med­
ical circles, and required professional reading and involyement in contemporary medical movements. There was So j
much to teachTnd so much to d5 to furtherjhe^health of_,
India. There is only one bound copy of the magazine, to
preserve the dynamic aspirations of our Sister doctors and
nurses during these first years of the Association.
Under Sister Laetitia’s editorship, the sixteen page maga­
zine which began November 1944 appeared bimonthly, with
the exception of December 1945, omitted “due to printing
difficulties*’. She published 19 issues in all, printed on a
poor quality brownish paper, which was all that was avail­
able during the war years. On April 19,1945, Sister Laetitia
reported at the Council Meeting in Bezwada “owing to short­
age of paper, it had been difficult to get the journal published,,
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but a certain quota has been sanctioned. She asked members
to send interesting articles”. When she opened another
Holy Family Hospital in Mandar, Ranchi District, the
magazine went with her to be printed by Rev. H. Jacquemotte,
S. J., at the Catholic Press, Ranchi.
In July of 1947, Sister Laetitia left India via the Philippines for the S.C.M.M. General Chapter, She hoped the
interlude, and arrived in
absence would be only a lshort
,
ticket
to India. Appointed
Philadelphia with a return
* ; never returned but went
Assistant to Mother Dengel, she
in South America and Africa. Then
on to open missions
----followed ten years, while superior in her native Britain^
nursing in the London slums. She is now working in an
African leprosarium.
Sister Laetitia’s resignationi was received with regret at
the Convention
Convention in
in Nellore, October JT^Ji J 947. THE
CATHOLIC HOSPITAL was left in the hands of Sister
Ignatius Marie, who had come with Sr. Laetitia from Patna
W Mandar? and who had been helping her superior with the
clerical work of the magazine. The “Medical Missionary

gives her history, also.
“Sister Ignatius Marie Desmond is a native of Somerville Massachusetts. She attended Boston Academy of
Notre Dame, as well as the New England Conservatory of
Music. She received her A. B. degree from Trinity College,
Washington, and before her entrance into the Society of
Catholic Medical Missionaries in 1935 was employed as
a pharmaceutical chemist.” In October 1938 she left for
Rawalpindi where she became a registered midwife, and
received an Indian Compounder’s diploma after a course
of studies in Amritsar. She transferred to Patna in 1942
and went on to pioneer the Mandar Holy Family Hospital
in 1947.
At the afternoon session of the C.H.A. Council Meeting

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name of the magazine be changed to ‘MFDTCAT. SER­
VICE*. The vote unanimously carried.” The journal was
subsequently registered in New Delhi under the new title
“MEDICAL SERVICE” Official Organ of the Catholic
Hospital Association—India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon.
“Pakistan” first appears in the title on the January-February
1959 issue.
The nurses refused the C.H.A. offer to reserve a section
of the journal for the nurses guilds. However, in an attempt
to bring together the Catholic doctors throughout the coun­
try, from January 1958 through the July-September 1959
issue the title page reads “MEDICAL SERVICE”, National
Organ in India of the Catholic Hospital Association and
the Medical Guild of St. Luke. It was at this time that the
“s” was dropped from the name of the Association, which
since then has been known as “The Catholic Hospital
Association”.
As he had feared, the burden of writing for the magazine
was left completely to Father Tong. So he relied on the
nearest Sisters for help, the Medical Missionaries at Holy
Family Hospital, New Delhi. From 1957 on they gave
assistance. During Father Tong’s absence in the United
States, Sister M. Caroline edited the journal from March
to August 1961. On his return from November 1961
through the May-June 1964 issue, Sister M. Caroline and
Sister M. Pascal are listed as Associate Editors. In two
issues from November 1965 to January-February 1966
Sister Michael Ann’s name appears as Assistant Editor.
Finally Mother Anna Dengel, M. D. in Rome responded
to Father Tong’s repeated appeals for assistance and re­
commended to Medical Mission superiors in India that a
qualified Sister should be assigned to the C.H.A. work. On
August 1, 1966 Sister M. Adelaideleft the teaching staff of
Holy Family Hospital School of Nursing, Mandar, and went

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to Delhi for full time duty at the Catholic Hospital Association office. Sister had been directly and indirectly associated with the Catholic Hospital Association since 1947.
In 1968 Sister M. Adelaide’s position as Executive
Secretary of C.H.A. was renewed by the Board and her
superiors. Besides an A. B. Degree from St. Joseph’s Colk^r&maitTburg, Maryland, the school founded by Blessed
Elizabeth Ann Seton, Sister holds a diploma in journalism,
and a teacher’s diploma in science and several other subjects.
Employed for ten years in business and social service work
in th United States, she has had almost twenty years ex­
perience in the Medical Mission Sisters’ hospitals in Bihar.
Since September 1966 editing of “Medical Service” has been
largely her responsibility. The magazine still suffers from
printing and paper problems, and contributed articles are
practically nil. Then, too, the pressure of work in C.H.A.
office leaves little time for writing.
However, bi-monthly the “MEDICAL SERVICE con­
tinues to unite C.H.A. members. Father Tong began his
second Editorial in 1957 with a summary of the journal’s
purpose. He wrote, “When Doctor Mary, Sisters Elizabeth
and Laetitia, Mothers Angelina, Attracta, Kinesburge, and
other valiant women met tc organize the Catholic Hospitals
Association, they launched this little paper to be a bond of

union between the member;..”

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THE GUARD CHANGES

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An atmosphere of depression hung over the preparations
for the 1955 annual Catholic Hospital Association Conven­
tion in Patna. In retrospect it seems as though the Sisters
who gathered a few days before the meetings shared in Sister
Mary’s painful sufferings from a distance. They knew that
for the first time in the history of the Association neither she
nor Mother Kinesburge would be with them. She must
have been speaking to the Holy Spirit in Guntur, as was her
prayerful custom, for on the first day of the Convention the
gloom changed to joy.
Gumur, Bangalore and Patna Dioceses had been most
deeplv mvolved in the history of the Catholic Hospital
Association. Now after twelve years, Patna for the first
time was the venue for the convention. The Sisters of
Holy Family Hospital, Patna, felt a great responsibility to
make the Convention a success. Sister M^. Leonie Tummers,
M. D.. Superior and Medical Superintendent was at that
time a member of the C. H. A. Board.
Mother Theodosia of the Apostolic Carmel, who is well
known throughout the world since Vatican Council II, had
offered Patna Women’s College for the Convention. A few
Sisters were to stay at St. Joseph’s Convent, Bankipore, and
some in the dhannashala at Kurji, now staff quarters of the
new Holy Family Hospital. Sister M. Adelaide was in charge

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of the arrangements for the guest Sisters at this latter place
Riglit Reverend A. Wildemtuth, S. J., of Patna was stil
Treasurer of the Committee handling the C.H.A. Medica
College Fund. As he was to open the Convention wit
Holy Mass, Sister M- Leonie and Sister M. Adelaide visited
him to finalize the programme. In the course of the conver­
sation, the depressing spirit and lack of enthusiasm evident
among a few of the members was mentioned. Sister Adelaide
who had been well acquainted with the Catholic Hospita
Association of the U.S. remarked that the strength of the
American organization was due to the fact that a . csui
Father directed the Sisters. His Excellency promised to do
all in his power to encourage and help the C.H.A. m 1 reir
medical apostolate. There was a saying at that time in
Patna, that no priest in the diocese had died of^hnig b
old age since Sister M. Laetitia and the Medical Miss.on
Sisters had come to Patna Diocese in 1939.
So after the Pontifical High Mass at Patna Women s
College on the morning of Saturday, November 12. 1955,
in his opening address to the Catholic Hospital Association,
His Excellency, the Right Rev. A. F. Wildermuth. S. J,
accompanied his cordial welcome with the offer of a practica
gift—a priest from Patna Diocese who might act as spintua
advisor and consultant.
His Excellency told the Sisters that he had consulted

Reverend Edward Mann, S. J- the Jesuit Patna
Superior, regarding an advisor for the Association. If the
delegates decided to accept the offer, they would try to find
a Father to fill the office-but on that morning he was not

able to say who might be named.
At the afternoon Council Meeting the resolution was
passed to accept the BishopXsffeL^IAJesmtmonffillMI^Jld
coordinator for the Association. MfitaUtime^ideUhe

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Three of the five members of the Governing Board were
present; three Councillors and one proxy were also present,
making a total of seven Sisters. Mother Angelina, a C.H.A.
founding member who had been Sister Mary’s superior in
1943, was one of the councillors there.
Sister Crescentia, S. C. N. of Nazareth Hospital, Mokameh, Bihar, as Second Vice-President presided at the Con­
vention. Due to her outgoing personality and years of
experience in public relations this meeting is an outstanding
one in the history of the Association. Elected to the C.H.A.
Board in 1953 Sister Crescentia was a very active member.
Sister Crescentia Wise, S.C.N., was bom March 13,1900,
in Kentucky, U.S.A., and entered the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth in 1918. She received her R. N. from St. Joseph
Hospital, Lexington, Kentucky, and a B.S. degree in Phar­
macy at the University of Louisville. Sister was one of the
six pioneers of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who arri­
ved in Mokameh, Patna District, Bihar, in December 1947.
She was an untiring, efficient organizer and was responsible
for the opening of a dispensary early in 1948, and Nazareth
Hospital on July 19, 1948. In August 1952 she started a
leprosy clinic with one patient. This work has grown to
huge proportions and now cares for about 2,000 leprosy
patients bi-monthly. She was instructor in the Nursing
School, and organized the service departments of the hospi­
tal. Due to ill health Sister returned to the U.S. in 1961,
and died on March 24, 1968. Her last years and her last
illness were an inspiration. She was Sister Visitor in the
hospital, and later among the retired Sisters. Hers was
not a casual contact, but she shared each one’s thoughts,
interests attitudes, joys and sufferings. So, too, the C.H.A.
had known her.
Sister Crescentia read the Presidential Address sent by
Mother Kinesburge, who was too ill to travel to Patna.

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Two internationally famous people in the medical field were
among the Convention guests. Miss Evelyn Pearce of
England, author of so many nursing textbooks, was in Patna
and attended the Mass on November 12. Dr. Franz Hcmenjicks of the Belgian Leprosy Centre conducted the first day’s
program on “The Leprosy Problem and Its Early Diagnosis”.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart had sent her contribution,
a paper entitled “The Doctor’s Role in the Mystical Body”
for the second day’s program. Rev. F. Wieman, S. J., spoke
on the “Mystical Body of Christ Applied to Medical Work
and Workers”. This historic meeting is preserved pictorially
in the C.H. A. office. The negative of the group picture of the
delegates taken in Patna in 1955 is the only Convention

negative in the C.H A. file.
In the Minutes of the last Council Meeting held on
November 14, 1955, before the delegates left Patna, the
name of Father James S. Tong, S. J. is listed as Ex- Officio
member of the Association.
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, still First Vice-President
of the C.H.A., from her bed of suffering had indeed guided
the Convention. She was well acquainted with the history
and functioning of the U.S. Catholic Hospital Association,
and in July-August 1945 THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL
had reprinted an article, entitled “The American Way”
by Rev. A. Schwitalla, S. J., its founder. His name appears
frequently in Sister Mary’s writings. Jesuit Fathers in
Australia, England and the U.S. had guided Sister Mary to
India. Now with less than a year and half to live, the sons
of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier ensured the continuity
of her Indian medical organization.
Correspondence in the C. H. A. ar chives continues the
story. In a New Year’s letter. Father Tong tells how he
learned during Christmas vacation of the appointment
made November 1955.

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LETTER FROM THE CHAPLAIN
Dear Sisters,

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At the annual Convention of the Catholic Hospitals’
Association, which was held in Patna last November, the
Sisters in authority requested His Lordship, The Rt. Rev.
Augustine Wildermuth, S. J., Bishop of Patna, to appoint a
priest to encourage the members and to help the association
in the management of its affairs. His Lordship consulted
the Superior Regular, and the result of their conference
was that the lot fell upon me. My appointment was an­
nounced to the Sisters at the meeting, but, as I was away on
a mission tour, I myself came to know of my new office only
about a month later when, on my return home, my Superior
greeted me in the corridor with: “Hey, did you hear about
your new appointment?” Probably the principal reason
why I was chosen is that I am a member of the Patna Jesuit
Mission Band, and thus have an opportunity to move
around and visit some of the hospitals which fall on the
routes of my preaching journeys.
This appointment has come upon me like a bolt from the
blue, a complete surprise. Truly, I have always admired,
and have in a general way been interested in the medical
apostolate. Yet, other activities have so completely absorb
ed my personal time and energy that I have never even
learned how to administer De Chane’s kit of six remedies
effectively. Thus, I could never have expected to receive
such an assignment.
However, now that I have it, I am glad of it. I joyfully
accept this opportunity to do for the hospital Sisters what­
ever I can within my limited time and talent.
Up to now, I must confess, I don’t know what my duties
are. I suppose they will slip upon me one by one as I get to

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know more about the Association and its excellent work.
Yesterday as I was making the stations, when I came to
the eighth: “Jesus comforts the women of Jersualem”, the
thought came to me: “that’s probably my job, to comfort
those good Sisters!” We usually associate the word comfort
with the things like a soft bed or an easy chair, but the basic
meaning of the word, if we consider its Latin origin, is to
strengthen. Might that not be the keynote of my future
work for the Association, to strengti cn it?
Devotedly, your chaplain,
James S. Tong, S.J.

It was the Sisters of Mercy who had come to Jamshed­
pur, India, in March 1953 from Merion, Pennsylvania, who
were to introduce Father Tong to the C.H.A. work. Sister
Mary Peter, C. R. S. M. was President from 1957 to 1960.
Sister Mary Daniel, C.R.S.M. had been elected Secretary
at the Patna Convention. On December 28, 1955, sac
wTote to Father from Mater Misericordiae Convent,

Jamshedpur:
“Your letters have pointed out what sort of informal?o..
you want, to carry on in your new capacity. I shall fil' ? ’■
as much as 1 can, and what I cannot will be either seen:
for you or referred to someone who can answer fir str v
The paper enclosed with the historical summary o.
C.H.A. in America holds enough of parallels to air -ci
your question, cWhat do the Sisters expect of me?’
“In the bundle that you have already received is a c •
of the Memorandum of the Association which state ■
Aims and Objectives. We were informed at the_l---meeting that many of the original papers were lost on
trip across the border and many of the papers are scatt‘red
ThaHs
one of the big kj ■■ :ib
among the council members. T
--- ----->

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for the need of a central office. When Mother Kinesburge sends her papers, and we are able to get the rest from
the other members, you will be able to catch up with what
needs explaining. Coming is a copy of the constitutions of
the American C.H.A., and the existing one for the Indian
C.H.A. which is to be revised. The really driving force
Ydien the Association was founded was the hope of a
Catholic Medical College. It has been carried on as far as
possible and has been given into the hands of the C.B.C.T.
to bring to completion. Discussions of a new endeavour
and the continued work of the C.H.A. has your appoint­
ment as one of the immediate results.”
From a distant part of the country a Sister superior and
hospital administrator acquainted with Father Tong for
many years wrote on January 22, 1956.

‘Do not think I forgot to answer your Christmas card,
but I had mislaid it
It is just as well that I did
not answer promptly
I was going to say—What
does the C.H.A. need a chaplain for unless it is to give
the last sacraments? In the meantime I had a letter
from your Bishop telling me about it. You are right,
we must have people to work for the Association
So
whether the Association will live or just crumble up
depends largely on the members, I mean the officers.
When I joined 1 did so because it was a Catholic Associa­
tion.”

A series of letters of documentary importance describe
lhe steps in the appointment of Rev. James S. Tong, S. J.,
.as Executive Director of the Catholic Hospital Association.

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.A. No. 934/56/CBCI
Rev. Fr. James S. Tong. S. J.
64 Cantt.
Jhansi, U.P.

Latin Archbishop’s House
Ernakulam P. O., S. India
10th February, 1956.

Dear and Rev. Father,
I wish to thank you for your esteemed letter of 9th inst.
I am happy to know that His Lordship, the Bishop of Patna
has appointed you to assist the sisters in the work of their
Association. 1 am sure that, with your assistance, the
Association will make steady progress and the discouraged
sisters will revive their spirit
Here I may observe that the President of the “Catholic
Hospital Association” was officially informed by His Emi­
nence, the Chairman of the C.B.C.L, that the said Associa;tion falls under the section of the Catholic Social Action...
With cordial blessings.

Yours devotedly in Christ.
Joseph Attipetty.
Archbishop of Verapoly.
There was a'- ■ ■ rrespondence between the Apostolic
bishop Attipetty:
Inter nuncio and

No. 7039/56
My dear Lord

Apostolic Internunciature
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
2nd April, 1956.

bishop,

A few days ago 1 -’her Tong, S. J., of Patna came to see

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me and spoke to me about the existing Catholic Hospital
Association and the desire of its members to have more
guidance
If the C.B.C.I. takes the hospitals under its wings, it will
be good that the correspondence of the Association is sent
to the Secretariat. From my experience in Africa I know
that the hospital section formed a very busy section in the
Secretariat. One of the Secretaries was especially assigned
for the work of the hospitals. So I asked Father Tong whe­
ther he was willing to serve in the Secretariat and to give his
time to the hospitals and other activities of the Secretariat.
He would not mind and I will speak with his Superiors.
It might be that they have a different view.
Personally I am very pleased that the hospitals come under
the Bishops’ Conference and that the Social Action Depart­
ment will look after them. It is obvious that Your Grace
cannot do all the work which had to be done by the Secre­
tariat, but now they will have a head, now they will have a
better status.
After Easter the President will contact Your Grace in
order to come to a settlement

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Yours in Christ,
Apostolic Internuncio
(M. H. Lucas, S.V.D.)
While in Calcutta for his first C.H.A. Convention, onOctober 15, 1956 Father Tong wrote to Archbishop*
Attipetty.
“Beginning with January my superiors leave me free
for this work. Hence, as soon as convenient after
the C.B.C.I. meeting, Your Grace, I would appreciate
receiving my commission, at least in brief outline form,,
in writing. There are a number of reasons for this.

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First, that 1 may have the blessing of obedience on my
work Secondly, that I may not make any mistakes
due to a misunderstanding of the limits and scope ot
my work. And. thirdly, that I may have something to
show to anyone who questions me.
Archbishop Attipetty answered:
A.M.D.G.
Latin Archbishop's House,
Ernakulam-1
(S. India)
November 5, 1956.
A. No. 14000/56/CBCI
Rev. Fr. James Tong, S. J.
St. Xavier's
Patna, Bihar.

Dear Rev. Father,
.
Probably you will receive an official communication
from the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the C.B.C.l.
regarding work. I am happy to state that the members ot
the Standing Committee have agreed to appoint you as om
of the Secretaries under the section of the Social Action to
attend in particular to the work of the Catholic Hospitals
Association. In addition to this you may have to do some
other work also, you will have to send me your programme
and the report of your work so that 1 may give you the
necessary directions.
Wishing vou success in \our work. I bless you most
cordially.

Yours devotedly in Xt.
Joseph Attipetty
Arcblushop of Verapoly.
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A few days later the Archbishop wrote again :
Latin Archbishop’s HouseErnakulam-1 P. O.
November 16, 1956.

Rev. Fr. James Tong. S. J.
St. Vincent High School,
Poona-1.

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Dear Rev. Father,

With reference to your letter of the 12th instant, I wish
to inform you that your main duty, at least in the beginning,
will be tft organize the Nurses' and Medical Guild, etc. I
did not mention this since I hoped and I still hope you will
get all the instructions from His Eminence, the Chairman.
Wishing you success in your work for the Catholic
Hospital Association, I bless you most cordially.
Yours devotedly in Christ,
Joseph Attipetty
Archbishop of Verapoly.

While the “guard was changing”, the future Executixe
Director of the Catholic Hospital Association, and Secretary
to the C.B.C.I., was not sitting still as the addresses on the
above correspondence indicate. He continued His Mas­
ter’s business on the Patna Jesuit Mission Band throughout
the year 1956.

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THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
So in 1956 Father Tong’s retreat schedule brought him
to St. Stanislaus Convent, Bangalore, the novitiate house
of the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. There the Found­
ress and the future Director of the Catholic Hospital Asso­
ciation met. After conversing with him Sister Mary of the
Sacred Heart, so near eternity, enthusiastically confided to
her Sisters, “I think we have the right person for the Catho­
lic Hospital Association. It will now have new life , and
so put her seal of approval on Father Tong’s appointment.
On January 1, 1957, Father James S. Tong, S. J., took
up residence in New Delhi. Most Reverend Joseph
Fernandes provided him with two rooms in Cathedral Cot­
tage, which six Jesuits from Missouri, U.S.A had occupied
a few years before while teaching at Delhi University.
Finance was a problem in establishing a permanent
office. At the C.H.A. Board Meeting in Calcutta October
1956, it had been agreed that Rs. 500 be advanced in Jan­
uary 1957, and that Father be asked for his expenses.
In a letter January 11, 1957 Mother Kinesburge follows

this matter through.

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“I am writing today to Sister Ancilla to send the cheque
; ► Cathedral
Place,
immediately to
<---------- Cottage,
— Alexandra
...
...
.1
hope
that
Reverend
Father
has
alNew Delhi. .
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ready taken up residence there
It seems that he
will be able to continue some of his mission work for
which I am glad. I think it would have been a big sacri­
fice if he had to give it up entirely.”

Before the cheque arrived he had borrowed Rs. 300 to
purchase a few new cassocks and a railroad ticket, for a
ten month travel tour through India. He covered 7,000
miles and was back in Delhi by October 30, 19^7 to give a
report to the C.B.C.I. and C.H.A. at their Convention in
Lucknow.
He summarized this first year of work as follows:
I. Preaching—over two months and included
1. Two parish missions and a week of parish visit­
ing
2. Five retreats, one for the clergy in Calicut, and
the others for Sisters.
3. Three students’ retreats.
4. His own retreat.
The income from this spiritual service paid for his
travel.

II. Organizing

Nurses' Guilds—
1. Addressed 11 Catholic Nurses Guilds
2. Organized 15 new Nurses Guilds
3. Addressed nurses in 6 cities where there were
not enough to form a Guild.

Physicians’ Guilds^—
1? Addressed 5 Catholic Physicians Guilds
2. Organized 5 new Physicians Guilds.
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HI. Held Regional Meetings for the Catholic Hospital
Association.

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1. Kurji Holy Family Hospital, Patna, March 19,
1957, 18 members present
2. Sacred Heart Leprosarium, Kumbakonam,
March 29, 1957, 11 members present.
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IV Publishing—

1. Edited THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL quarterly
2. Started to publish THE LOTUS AND THE
LAMP as a one sheet quarterly for the Catholic
Nurses’ Guild.

He ended the report “I am content with the work.
Where ever I have gone fresh interest has been aroused.
The Sisters particularly have been grateful for what I have
done for them”.
In an editorial of July 1957 Fathex^bng_summanzed
C.H.A. statistics. uWe have in the country approximately
a hundred Catholic hospitals. They vary in size. At teist
ten have over 1100 beds., 5feIeEaYerage_rpu^Lly_ be­
tween 20 tq^ 40 beds..... .careful observation shows that
the most acutely felt heedjsjqr Jiualified doctors.”
Who is this Director who during the next ten years was
to see the Catholic medical institutions triple in number?
James Stuart Tong, S. J., was born in Owensboro,
Kentucky, the eldest of seven children, three sisters and three
brothers. Since none of the brothers was near his own age,
as a boy he spent a great deal of time alone. His recrea­
tion on their farm was hunting, fishing, swimming, riding.
He attended St. Mary’s College 60 miles south of Louisville
conducted by the Resurrectionist Fathers. It was a small

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school with only 120 students among whom were a number
of late vocations preparing for the priesthood. One fellow
student, Ignatius Collins, intended to join the Jesuits. He
and James Tong became close friends and both after gradu­
ation entered the Society of Jesus at Milford, Ohio, near
Cincinnati. His novitiate and philosophy were at West
Baden, Indiana. He was assigned to Patna Diocese in
1939. His introduction to India consisted of six weeks
Hindi study at Hazaribagh, Ranchi Diocese, and a year of
teaching at St. Xavier’s School, Patna. In 1942 he taught in
the parish school at Bettiah, Bihar. The years 1943 through
1946 were spent in theology at St. Mary’s Seminary, Kurseong, Darjeeling District. From January to June 1947>
he was on the Mission Band, before going to Sacred Heart
College, Shembaganur, South India for Tertianship which
was completed in April 1948. From May 1948 to Decem­
ber 31, 1956 Father Tong was a member of the Patna Jesuit
Mission Band,, travelling throughout India giving missions
and retreats. Therefore, he brought to C.H.A. a know­
ledge of the country, the Church and the people—the reli­
gious and laity.
Settling down in New Delhi toward the end of 1957, the
Director established permanent headquarters for the Catho­
lic Hospital Association. He used one of the little rooms
at Cathedral Cottage for an office and hired a clerk, Henry
Martin, whom he trained so well that this young man now
holds a high position in the American Embassy, Kabul,
Afghanistan.
Other Catholic organizations were also opening offices
in the Capital of India. Father Tong took an interest in
Catholic Relief Services, which had been shipping supplies
to India since 1952. The work had been started in Delhi
by Father Snyder of the U.S., which was carried on by Msgr.
Jack D’Souza, brother of Most Rev. Eugene D’Souza, pre-

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sent Archbishop of Bhopal. He helped with the govern­
ment routines of getting the supplies into the country, accord­
ing to the Indo-American Agreement which had been signed
July 9, 1951, in Washington by Dean Acheson and Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit.
In 1956 Mr. Norton was appointed Director of the
Catholic Relief Services, and lived at the newly built Holy
Family Hospital, where he worked with a stenographer and
a clerk. Mr. and Mrs. Sonaggere replaced him in 1958.
They resided and worked at the Cecil Hotel. They gave
Father TongRs. 200 a month in return for his advice and_
help. Daily the C.H.A. Director cycled from New to Old
Delhi to work in the C.R.S. office. When the Patna Jesuits
took over the Cecil Hotel in 1960 and started renovations
to change it into St. Xavier’s School, the C.R.S. office
moved to a private house in New Delhi, which eliminated
the long trip across town.
Archbishop Attipetty on October 7, 1957, wrote to
Father Tong about the work at C.R.S. “It was good to
hear that you were able to help Mr. Norton in his work
for the Catholic Relief Services. In case you can take up
that work also without prejudice to your work for the Nurses
Guild, etc., I most cordially approve of the suggestion, and
shall only be very glad \hat you help Mr. A. Sonaggere,
since the relief supplies fall under the section of Social Ac­
tion. I was once asked to take up the distribution and
correspondence regarding the supplies. I found it impossi­
ble to do the work from here, and I suggested to Mgr.
Gordon to entrust the papers to His Grace, the Archbishop
of Delhi. So you are the right person to help Mr. Sonaggere.
Of course now’ you will be doing the work for the Relief
Services, and not on behalf of the C.B.C.I. But it comes to
the same. It will certainly solve many difficulties if you arc
approved as a laison officer between Catholic hospitals and

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the Relief Services.”
In 1961 Miss Marley was in charge of C.R.S. and had
her little office in Defence Colony. In October 1963 office
space for CHA.jind^.R.S.. was provided in the new
C.B.C I. Centre, Alexandra Place._With Mr. F. Senz, as
Director of C.R.S. a close working relationship was estab­
lished between the two organizations. A monthly dona­
tion of Rs. 300 from C.R.S. to C.H.A. for its services helped
the Catholic Hospital Association budget when funds were
very scarce.
An important out come of this relationship was the es­
tablishment of Catholic Charities of India. The summary
in C.H.A. files reads:

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“During 1959, Mr. Armando E. Sonaggere, Program
Director of Catholic Relief Services, and Father Tong
used to discuss the possibility of organizing a counter­
part organization which should be called Catholic Chari­
ties, to raise money within the country, and be estab­
lished to carry on, in case C.R.S. should cease of function.
“j^£r. Sonaggere agreed to try to secure aid from C.R.S.,
New York, to help in a material way to get it started,
and Father Tong undertook to interest the Bishops. In
this connection he wrote a circular letter to the bishops
and published several articles in the C.R.S. bulletin
“Food for Thought”.
“In early 1960 both Mr. Sonaggere and Father Tong
attended a meeting of the Standing Committee of the
C.B.C.I in Bangalore. Father Tong presented a paper
urging the setting up of Catholic Charities on a national
basis, and Mr^Sonaggere gave a speech^abput the same
topic. They both nominated Msgr. I. Lobo to be in
charge. Some time after the meeting His Eminence
Cardinal Gracias, agreed to release Msgr. Lobo, who

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was then his Secretary, for this work. Further discus­
sions took place after this meeting, and it was decided
that because the matter was of national importance, it
should be presented to the general body meeting of the
C.B.C.I. This was done the following year in Delhi.
Theie it was again approved by all the Bishops of India
to start Catholic Charities India.”

Fot twelve years Father Tong, S. J., has represented the
Catholic Hospital Association at home andabrpad. Home
is Delhi, as he was among those dedicated individuals who
became the first citizens of a free and independent India.
As Asian Secretary for the Intemational CajholicjConfederafion of Hospitals, he is in contact with sixteen eastern
countries outside India.
' His longest leave of absence was between March 30, 1961
and September 1961, when he took a course at St. Louis
University and received a diploma in Hospital Administra­
tion. At that time he also studied the functioning of the
American C.H.A., the American Hospital Association, the
Canadian Hospital Association, the Catholic Hospital Asso­
ciation of Canada and visited many hospitals.
The tangible benefits to Catholic Hospital Association
members through the broad contacts and unceasing work
of their Executive Director, may be briefly summarized:

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I. From the cooperative working with the Catholic
Relief Services has evolved the following services
to Catholic medical institutions—

1. aid in registration on the Government of India
approved list for the Indo-American and Indo­
British Agreements.
2. aid in obtaining import licenses for institutional

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equipment.
3. aid in obtaining remission of custom duty on
imported hospital equipment.
II. The Catholic Hospital Association is the recognized
organization for submitting and approving applications for medicine, buildings, equipment, scholar­
ops ? etc. for Ca thol ic med ical i nst it utions seeking

ii

aid from:
1. Catholic Medical Mission Board—through
Catholic Relief Services.
International
Caritas—through Catholic Chari­
2.

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ties of India.
Mi
sereor—through
3.
Service Society.

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the Indo-German Social

III. An Employment Service for hospitals seeking staff,
and personnel seeking employment.
IV? The periodic publication of a Catholic Hospital
Directory which is used in India and abroad.

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In a Christmas letter of 1966 addressed to friends and
benefactors. Father Tong in writing about his Mother and
his Home, unintentionally portrays himself.

-My mother died joyfully on October 19th. Age 76.
In the recent years after Dad died, she lived alone in
Owensboro, Kentucky. Daily she attended Mass, of­
ten staying on for a second or third. She made an
annual retreat. Belonged to the parish societies: Daughlers of Isabella, Te Deum International, Apostleship of
Prayer. She was also a member of the Third Order of
St. Benedict, associated with St. Meinrad Monastery,
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Indiana.
“She seemed to breathe short prayers. Her letters would

commonly begin with: Sacred Heart of Jesus, my con­
fidence. Or Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us. the
rosary was her constant companion. Her piety radiated
a spirit of joy among all around her. Like Mary, she
would be present for the births, weddings and funerals
of relatives and neighbours, cheerful to lend a helping
hand or say the encouraging word. She was always ready
to close house and live with people who had illness in the
family or who needed someone to look after the child­
ren while they went on holiday. She called herself a leafleteer, a term she had learned from Father Garesche, late
Director of Catholic Medical Mission Board, New Yor .
She always had stacks of leaflets, rosaries, scapulars and
Sacred Heart badges to give out to visitors or inclose
with letters. She engaged in a wide correspondence with
friends, relatives and pious associations.

“Though she was not notably ill. by doctor’s advice she
walked over to the hospital to have her gall-bladder out.
She no doubt sensed danger, as she wrote to me a lew
days previously that if anything happened she would like
Fathers Abe and Chamberlain to come. Father Abrahffl
Puthamana is an Indian Jesuit doing his theology in
Chicago. Father Chamberlain and 1 had worked to-

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gether for several years in India.

“The first day after the operation she seemed fine, but the
second day she started weakening, and the third morn­
ing she went off as though sleeping. Several of those
who attended the funeral have remarked that her face
seemed to shine with an admirable beauty.

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“It’s a matter of time. Our turn will come, and we shall
laugh with her again.
“The telegram reached me in Calcutta the day before our
Catholic Hospital Association Convention. Similarly, ten
years previously, when we were having our CHA con­
vention in the same place, Loreto House, Calcutta, the
day before the convention I received the telegram that
my father had been killed in an accident. This was an
astonishing co-incidence. The explanation that occur­
red to me was that God was manifesting a delicate Pro­
vidence, for this way the Hospital sisters for whom I
work were able immediately to offer their Masses and
prayers for both my parents.”

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9
MEDICAL GUILDS IN INDIA
The first Object in the Memorandum of the Association
of the Catholic Hospitals’ Association is:

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1. To teach and safeguard Catholic principles in medical
and nursing practice.

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For years before the formulation of this objective, Sister
Mary of the Sacred Heart had studied, pondered and prayed
about the matter which is briefly summed up in the physicians
“Oath of Hippocrates”-------“I solemnly swear that I will
treat the sick only with a view to helping them and never
in order to inflict injury....” The “injury” may involve the
patient and the physician, the physical and the moral well­
being of both. In 1922 Sister Mary decided “There was
only one way to solve the twofold problem, and that was to
supply Catholic medical men and women teaching sound
ethical principles, and for this we must have a Catholic
Medical College in India.... Personal experience has led
to this conclusion”.
To compensate for “the great dearth of doctors” and the
lack of Catholic medical educational facilities, Sister Mary
urged the Catholic doctors to group themselves into guilds.
At the second general Convention of the Catholic Hospital
Association in Nagpur Major A.F.W. Da Costa-Joshi,
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F.R.C.S., L.M. & S., D.T.M., V.D., late A.F.M.C., late
of Chateau D’Emilia, Nagpur, was guest speaker;
his topic “Guild of St. Luke”.

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“For the past six years the whole world has been torn
asunder by a devastating war. In this turmoil and even
more the last great war of 1914-1918 and before it, there
sprang up many practices against Catholic morality.
I plead guilty of having performed a few craniotomies.
My complete ignorance of the law is my one plea for
forgiveness. I did not know that I was doing wrong.
Teachers and professors have spread the fallacious ideas.
The idea of St. Luke’s Guild is to counteract these false
teachings and to impart to Catholic doctors proper Catho­
lic medical ethics, not only for their own enlightment but
also for the enlightment of their patients.
“The Guild of St. Luke, St. Cosmos and St. Damian is
composed of Catholic members of the medical profession,
resident in Great Britain, Ireland and British Dominions
beyond the seas. It was founded July 27, 1910 by Surgeon General Thomas Maunsell, C.B., LL.D, and is nov
affiliated with the French Guild bearing the same title.
“Its principle purpose is the study and discussion of
medical questions, especially, those which deal with th;
duties of a physician, and the upholding of Catholic
principles against unscientific materialism. The Guild
seeks to quicken and sustain a corporate sense among
Catholic medical practitioners and urges its members
to take an active part in parochial and diocesan life.

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“Not long ago a Guild was started in Bombay and I
believe that I am right when I say that His Grace, the
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Archbishop of Bombay, Dr. Thomas Roberts, S.J.,
was largely instrumental in promoting its existence.’
Father Hickey, C.S.S.R. continued on the same topic:
“In medical science the prevailing attitude is one of
materialism....War brings great advances in medicine
but the ethical aspect is secondary. As an immediate help
to Catholic doctors who are already practicing, I suggest
that they become members of St. Luke’s Guild. A solitary
doctor may sometimes be at a loss. A doctor in private
practice makes his own decisions. A doctor in a Govern
ment hospital may be in a difficult position, when certain
orders are issued
In England whereSt. Luke’s Guild
is well established, Government has been approached
in such cases and a satisfactory solution found.”

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Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart knew from experience
■why these speakers were concerned. During her student
•days at the University of Melbourne, Catholic medical stu­
dents had been upset at teaching and practices, and ap­
proached members of the hierarchy with their problems.
Archbishop Carr of Melbourne, although absent in Europe
published a booklet “Infanticide”, concerning the matters
which worried them. Dr. Glowery (Sister Mary) had written
it and the Dean permitted the students to use it. From
;this grew the request for a Cathohc University College on
.the same campus. As a result Newman College was
.opened in 1918. and St. Mary’s Hall, the women’s hostel

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has now become St. Mary s College.

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.Bombay'.

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Only one medical guild existed in India when the Catholic
Hospital Association was organized. “TheCathoh^Mediral

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Guild of St. Luke”, Bombay, was started October 23, 1938,
and through the years has been working to enroll the over
200 Catholic doctors. Most Rev. Dr. T. D. Roberts, S.J.,
Archbishop of Bombay, told them that “the strength of the
Guild should be judged not by the number but the quality
of members composing it”, and made known who the
members should be when he said “I want it known that the
Guild of St. Luke, Bombay, is an instrument of enlighten­
ment for the priest as well as the doctor. The real battle
for Christian and civilized values, both in the East and West,
lies in the field where Priest and Doctor are two arms of a
single force.” In this Guild the Doctors were the Ordinary
Members and the Priests were Associated Members.
As Archbishop of Bombay from 1937 to 1950, Most
Reverend T. D. Roberts, S.J. was a missionary of great
vision. The quotation cited above were not mere wordsvoiced to the air, but real seeds of professional life which are
in the 1960’s bearing abundant fruit. Dr. Louis Monteiro,
M.D., on the governing board of the Bombay Guild for so
many years, is Dean of St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore.
Priests who were the associate members are the leaders and
organizers of the religious and social activities of the Church
of India today. Their names are listed in the Biennial Re­
ports of the Guild.
The Bombay Guild began extending its influence outside
local circles with the publication of the Guild quarterly
bulletin issued as a supplement to the Examiner since 1949.
In 1950 they said “If we only keep the bulletin going as well
as we have done, the Guild will have justified its existence”.

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Madras:

This medical movement had extended to Madras in
southeast India. Sister M. Attracta, a Sister of the PresenJ

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tation, and one of the original signers of the Memorandum
of Association of the C.H.A., gave a talk at the Calcutta
Convention, November 19, 1948, on “The Catholic Medical
Students Guild of Madras”. Mother M. Attracta for years
novice mistress in Madras, and now superior of the Presen­
tation novitiate in Bangalore, vividly recalls the points on
elocution Sister Mary gave her before she went on the stage
to deliver the speech.

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“About three years ago a few Catholic students at the
Medical College who were quartered in different parts
of Madras, became aware of their isolation. They felt
the need of some association to draw them together.
Gradually a plan was evolved and submitted to the Arch­
bishop of Madras for approval.

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“The organizers were but a small group of men; much to
their astonishment about one hundred twenty students
attended the first meeting, over which His Excellency,
Mos? Rev. Louis Mathias, S.D.B., D.D., Archbishop of
Madras presidedT What was more, the students were
pleasantly surprised to find some of their lecturers
attending the meeting. The “Catholic Medical Students
Guild” was formed, but at the wish of His Excellency,
membership was extended to Catholic doctors,
also.

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Arrangements were made for meetings at the Cathedral
....Father Txmrdes. j^ Ph.D., D.Sc. was appointed
spiritual directorT^sl^therTourdes says in an article
hTthe^GuHd journal, “An association of men rarely
thrives on talking and speeches------ action and achieve­
ment are the very essence of life”. During the first year
of its existence it did do some talking to clarify for itself

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its spiritual ideals, their bearing on the medical profession
and its social responsibilities.
Its ambition was to establish a free medical clinic in
Madras... .They were offered a couple of vacant rooms
in a small house in the compound of St. Francis Church,
Broadway, in one of the poorest and most crowded parts
of the city. The students used their own money to furnish
these rooms. On October 13, 1947 all was ready, a wellequipped little dispensary and a band of enthusiastic
young men and women to work in it... .a blessing by
Msgr. Theodore begged God’s special protection on the
venture. Since its opening it has not been closed a single
evening including Sundays and Christmas. A doctor and
a student or two work daily from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
... .weekend retreats have been held at Loyola College.”

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Towards the end of 1949 this Guild inaugurated a Mobile
Hospital Unit to solve the problem of medical relief in the
villages.
Calcutta'.

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On the last day of the Catholic Hospital Association
annual convention, it had become the practice to hold a spe­
cial meeting for Catholic Doctors and Nurses. At the meet­
ing on November 20, 1948 at St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta,
there was a good attendance of doctors, medical students
and nurses. The above speech of Sister Attracta resulted in
a resolution “to form a committee to organize a Guild in
Calcutta”.

A detailed report of the Catholic Medical Guild of Cal- .
cutta was written by Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart and
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presented at the next annual C.H.A. meeting held in Bombay,.

November 4-6, 1949.
“On March 27,1949, the Catholic Medical Guild of Calcutta (Doctors’ Section) was formed and officers elected..
’. .It was decided to open a charitable dispensary
at which doctors would be asked to render part-time
service. This is an effort to contribute in a small and
humble way towards the amelioration of the great short age of hospital accommodation and medical treatment
of the very poor in Calcutta. For use as a dispensary
Rev. Fr. Barre, S.J., Rector of St. Xavier’s College, Park
Street, placed a small building in the College compound
at the disposal of the Guild...-Firms and charitable
inclined persons have donated funds and medical sup­
plies. The dispensary was named after St. Luke, the
Patron Saint of doctors, and was formally opened and
blessed on April 9, 1949 by Rev. Father Barre, S.J.,
assisted by Rev. Father Vrithoff, S.J.^spiritual_adv!ser

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of the Guild....

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“His Excellency, the Rt. Rev Mgr. J. Fernandez, V.G.>
Archbishop’s House, 32 Park Street, Calcutta, has gra­
ciously given the whole undertaking his blessing and has
kindly consented to receive donations to the fund.”
Bangalore:

This was repeated in November 1954 when fifty doctors
assembled in Bangalore for the C.H.A. meeting. Sister
Mary of the Sacred Heart spoke to them at the meeting in
Good Shepherd Convent Hall. His Grace, Dr. Thomas
Pothacamury presided. In view of the large number of
Catholic Doctors in Bangalore Sister Mary suggested it
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would be most appropriate that a Medical Guild be formed
on the same lines as those in Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.
All were most enthusiastic about the idea and it was un­
animously decided to form the Guild immediately, and the
group convened on December 19,1954 at the Catholic Club
for the election of officers. Very Rev. Sylvester Dias,
O.F.M. was named spiritual director.

*

The Catholic Medical Guild of St. Luke, Bangalore,
printed a detailed annual report of its activities similar to the
Bombay Biennial Report. In 1955 there were two clinics
functioning in poor areas of the city, in 1956 three clinics;
in 1957 four clinics; in 1958 a home for the aged, a seminary
and an orphanage were also provided with medical care?
In 1959 a total of 33,117 patients had been treated in seven
clinics. The membership was Doctors 32 and Auxiliary
Members 62.

New Delhi:

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The Medical Guild of St. Luke was organized in Delhi
September 19, 1954 by His Grace, Archbishop Josephjernandez and Doctor Daisy Kulanday with the assistance
of Reverend H.~ Santapau, S.J., F.N.T., Ph.D., D.I.C.,
Chaplain of the Bombay Guild. Msgr. John Burke, Vicai
General, was requested to be the ecclesiastical adviser.
On October 10,1954 Dr. Kulanday wrote to Father Santapau,
who had recently been appointed to the post of Chief Botan­
ist, Government of India.
’’Reverend and dear, Father, I am happy to inform you
that consequent to your visit to Delhi and the interest
you created among Catholics doctors here to form the
Guild of St. Luke, sufficient cooperation has been evinc-

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ed and the Guild has been formed. I am enclosing
a copy of the constitution and a list of the office bearers.

The Archbishop of Verapoly in his letter of November
16, 1956 informed Father J. Tong, S.J., “your mam duty, at
least in thebeginning, will be to organize the Nurses and
Medical Guilds”. On his ^STWur Father Tong addressed
the Bombay, Bangalore and MadrasGuilds, as well as those
i^GunruV^i^^
^en organized by
Sister Mary. His annual report says “Ne^GuiMs^
doctors were started in Ernakulam (Verapoly ^Diocese)
Secunderabad, Nagpur, BelgaumandMangalore .
Catholic
Doctors Guilds in Pondicherry, Quilon and VejloreFrom 1957 through 1964 Father Tong worked and plan­
ned for the federating of the joct(2rs’jju)lds_into a united
national guild. During 1963 and 1964 correspondence
ihiT^Hvent back and forth between the CH A
office and the Guilds in Bombay and Bangalore. To date he
question of the location of a national headquarters for the
Guild is pending and awaits the completion and full
functioning of St. John’s Medical College. When the
Medical College through its graduates makes its influence
felt, and the Catholic doctors now so sparsely scattered
in numbers a
throughout the rest of the court’v increase
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National Guild should result.
,
milpa?
According to a recent report, St. John s Medical College
is already carrying on the Guild work begun by Archbishop

Roberts and Sister Mary.
“Care has been taken to provide for the moral and spir­
itual formation of the students. Apart fronit a weekly
course in Religion, courses of lectures in Phdosoi> y
and in Medical Ethics are given to all students. Cath 97

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lies are members of the Catholic Students Union. A
special feature is, that the College, in collaboration with
the Catholic Medical Guild of St. Luke, Bangalore, has
organized a Junior Wing for the Guild, composed of
the Catholic students of the College, as well as of the
other medical college in Bangalore, namely the Bangalore
Medical College. Plans are afoot for providing a per­
manent Chaplain-cum-Counsellor, who will reside at the

College Hostel.”
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In this anniversary year of 1968, it is the Bombay Guild
alone which makes the national headlines through its Catho­
lic Medical Bulletin, a Quarterly Supplement to the Examiner.

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The Catholic Hospital Association and the Medical
Guild of St. Luke, New Delhi, remain closely united under
Father Tong, S.J., the executive director of one, the spiritual
adviser to the other. Located in the capital of India, the
C.H.A. office continues to be a receiving station for medico­
moral problems, which with a slight change of name are
the same as concerned Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart a
half century ago.

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THE CATHOLIC NURSES’ GUILD OF
INDIA

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When Sister Mary travelled the twenty miles from Guntur
to visit Sister Elizabeth at Bezwada in 1941, they did not
talk about a visionary medical school, or a national associa­
tion of hospitals; the discussion centered on NURSING
and the training of professional nurses.
Promotion of professional nursing was the immediate
aim of the practical, hard-working Sisters who were the foun­
ders of the Catholic Hospital Association. The first Govern­
ing Board consisted of eight nurses and one doctor, but this
ratio was not representative of the health personnel of India
then or now. These Sister nurses were holding supervisory
positions in the Government hospitals, or were struggling
to build up a Catholic health service in needy areas where
there was no medical care.
When Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, the doctor on the
Board, began medical practice in Guntur in 1921, she had
to work alone until she trained a few assistants. Her bio­
graphy mentions this situation. “A few patients were ad­
mitted, but still there were no trained nurses on the staff.
Dr. Glowrey had to carry on with an untrained staff, as the
trained nurses of the Convent were working in the Govern­
ment Hospital” across the street from St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The “Bhore Report” of 1946 giving the medical statistics

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for British India shows why the Sisters were concerned
about the NURSING PROFESSION.
Doctors
47,500
Nurses
7,000
The ratio 6 doctors to 1 nurse. This professional dis­
crepancy has its roots in the existing culture, economy, the
social and political life of the people. In 1946 these 7,000
registered nurses were for the most part Indian ladies educated
abroad, foreign sisters, or Christian students trained in the
schools of nursing in British India. The united influence
of these nurses was needed as a leaven in the profession.
Sister Mary through her work with the Catholic Women’s
Social Guild in Australia knew that this could be accom­
plished only through organization.
Her co-workers were convinced of this also. Mother
M. Kinesburge, F.M.M., and Sister M. Laetitia, S.C.M.M.,
had been delegates of the only two religious congregations
in the country who were sending Sisters to the meetings of
the Trained Nurses Association of India. At the first
general meeting of the Catholic Hospital Association in
Bangalore, April 21, 1944, Mother Kinesburge spoke on
“The Advantages of All Trained Nurses Joining the T.N.A.I.”

w-*

“I wish to ask all present to join as active members of
the one and only Association that is working for nurses
in India. It is not sufficient just to become members,
but do all you can to promote interest among the nurses
with whom you are working. Attend the meetings, use
your votes, and so put in the balance all your efforts
to bring our profession up to the standards of other
countries.
“It began in 1905 in a very small way, as the Association
of Nursing Superintendents, with nine members. It was
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soon found that the Association must extend its activities
to all branches of nursing, and in 1908 the present As­
sociation was founded, and was registered under the
Societies Registration Act on June 16, 1917... .The
General Secretary, Miss Hartley, has been untiring in her
visits to all the Provinces, urging and encouraging nurses
to uphold the dignity of their profession, and to co­
operate in the improvement of their status, their training
schools and their conditions, and to try to impress upon
the public that our vocation is a noble one.

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“What is the T.N.A.L doing in these days ? Since the
removal of the office to Delhi, about two years ago, im­
portant advances have been made.

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1. The Post Graduate School of Nursing was opened in
1943 in the Lady Reading Health School in Delhi.
The military authorities are sending six sisters to take
the course in administration.

The Provinces have given six scholarships for the Sister
Tutor Course.

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2. The Florence Nightingale Scholarship has been pro­
vided for study in England.

3. In Feburary-of this year a meeting of twenty-five
nurses with a long and wide experience was called
in Delhi, to discuss important questions on the health
of India and to make suggestions for immediate
improvement of health conditions... .for the first
time in the history of India, nurses have been
asked by Government to advise in matters of
nursing.

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LIBRARY

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DOCUMENTATION

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•’Our D.G.I.M.S., Major General Hance, who is well
known to you all in Bangalore, is not going to let file
grass grow under his feet. I had the pleasure of working
under him while he was our Inspector General in C.P.,
and I can most earnestly assure you that if there is any­
thing that can be done for nursing and nurses, he will

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do it.”

The next talk was by Sister Mary Laetitia, S.C.M.M,.
on “Some Problems of the Present Day”.

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“Our very first problem is world-wide; shortage of nurses.
We have to increase our numbers.
“There are 1000 hospitals in India that admit men, wo­
men and children, but have not a single, solitary nurse....
. .Sisters, we need not be afraid of opening schools of
nursing and hospitals. As for finance, St. Joseph is a
wonderful banker; we need not worry on that score.
Everything our Society has in lnd^
n
nothing. In Rawalpindi, we had a few beds, a little
equipment, and nothing much else. In Patna we had a
promised income of Rs. 200 per month for one year,
Rs. 500 for equipment, one trained nurse and one phar­
macist. A friend allowed us to go in debt for 12 adult
beds and three children’s cots. The Bishop lent us a
compound, and gave us great help in many ways. In no
time we found a lay doctor, paid off our debts and began
to increase our numbers. Today we have 75 beds and
are now building a new ward to bring our total to 120
beds. One of our Sisters, is a qualified doctor, we have
five other Sisters, and a recognized training school of
nursing —all within four years.”

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Under Education, Sister Laetitia discussed the need of
Sister Tutors for the training schools, a collegiate school of
nursing, a code of ethics, hospital standardization, textbooks
and hospital legislation,.... Sister repeated after each
topic, “C.H.A. seems to be eminently fitted for this

purpose”.
,
The Catholic Medical Guild Bulletin, Bombay, January
19 1952, featured an article bn the Catholic Hospitals
Association by Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart. She had
summarized the nursing situation, after eight years of

C.H.A activity.
“In the nursing field some little has been done. The
number of training schools for nurses in India (and
Pakistan) has been increased from two to seven. C.H. •
examinations have been recognized by the Madras
Nurses’ Council, and at the request of C.H.A. the post­
graduate Course for Sister-Tutors has been thrown open
to nurses trained in mission hospitals.
“Several members of the C.H.A. have been elected by
their Provinces or States to represent them on the Train­
ed Nurses Association. Recently an Indian Ni 'mg
Council Act was passed with the object of regulating
and co-ordinating nursing in India. We had no voice
in the election of members of the Indian Nursing Council,
but the Orissa Government chose one of our members
as its representative. The Trained Nurses Association
unanimously elected the Vice-President of C.H.A. as
its representative on the I.N.C. At the first meeting of
the I.N.C. she was chosen as a member of the Executive
Committee.”
There are only two letters in the C.H.A. files in Sister
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Mary’s own handwriting, and one of them is on the above
subject. It is dated July 10,1949, addressed to Sister Ignatius
Marie, S.C.M.M., editor of the “Catholic Hospital .
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ing Council is in existence at last.
“The Indian Nursing
riyerT
forthe
Our prayers — — - C.H.A. representation on it have
been heard in a wonderful. way, since the Orissa GovernApollonie
to represent them.
ment appointed Sister __
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Then the T.N.A.I. elected Mother Kinesburge, who is
now on the Executive Committee.

!

Sister Appolonie, a Sister of St. Joseph of Annecy, was
Matron of the Orissa Medical College Hospital, Cuttac ,
and elected to the C.H.A. Board in 1950. Mother Kines­
burge was still Matron of Victoria Hospital, Jabalpur.
Another of the T.N.A.I. representatives referred to was
Sister Mary Laetitia, S.C.M.M., Branch Secretary for

The “Catholic Hospital” gives details regarding the elec­
tions for the Indian Nursing Council. “At the Annual
Conference of the Trained Nurses Association of India,
November 1948. Mother Kinesburge, F.M.M., was nomina­
ted by Miss Taylor, Dean of the College of Nurses, Christian
Medical Colkc Vellore, who spoke with much appreciation
of the contribution that Catholic religious Sisters have made
in the field of nursing. Mother Kinesburge was unani­
mously elected representative of the T.N.A.I. on the newly
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formed Indian Nursing Council.” •
r.i. - T—Mnrcmn
“On May 19 J 949, the first meeting of the Indian Nursing
New Delhi. The chief business of the
Council was h J.d in
meeting, which was opened by Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur,
was the election of an executive committee to prepare the
for the meeting at Vellore in Decembei.
agenda and reports U.

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The executive committee:

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Director General or Public Health
Services

Miss Taylor
Miss T. K. Adranvala
Mother Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Miss Williams.
Dr. Chamanlal Mehta.
Miss Acctor.
Mrs. Indra
Miss Paul

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President.
Vice President

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The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary were leaders in
the secular and religious organization of nursing in India.
A Catholic NuTTel^Guild was begun in Hyderabad on
December^,] 940 by Mother Jovita and Mother Sapienta,
the latter being the Superintendent of Nursing Service for
the princely state of Hyderabad. Mother Francis, F.M.M.,
present Matron of the ‘-Fever Hospital”, Hyderabad, has
the original C.N.G. Minute Book. At that time Catholic
Sisters were in charge of nursing in four large hospitals in
the area, and were in contact with many lay nurses. The
Catholic Directory of 1939 lists these hospitals:
hospitals.
Railway Hospital, Lallaguda, Secun­
derabad, Sisters of St. Anne of Providence
K.E.M. (now Gandhi) Hospital, Sec­
underabad, Sisters of Charity, SS.
Cap. and Ger
Contagious Diseases Hospital, Hy­
derabad, Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary
Osmania Hospital, Hyderabad, Fran­
ciscan Missionaries of Mary

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4 Sisters

4 Sisters

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5 Sisters
20 Sisters

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The Sisters are still working in the first three of these
hospitals, but withdrew from Osmania in 1948.
From 1943 the Catholic Hospital Association made every
effort to form Nurses Guilds. As far as possible the annual
C.H.A. Convention was scheduled to be held in the city
selected for the T.N.A.I. meeting, and either just before
or after the nurses’ conference. This encouraged many
Sister nurses to attend both conventions without inconven­
ience, and was a means of educating toward the Catholic
Nurses’ Guild formation in the Catholic institutions. On
the last day of the annual Catholic Hospital Association
Convention, special meetings were held for Doctors and

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Nurses.
At the meeting of the Doctors and Nurses at the Catholic
Hospital Association Convention in Calcutta, November 20,
1948, Sister M. Clare gave a short outline of the American
Catholic Nurses Association, and Mother Kinesburge spoke
about the Catholic Nurses Guild in England, Colombo, and
Hyderabad. After these talks the Catholic Nurses Guild
of Calcutta was organized. Reverend F.C. Vrithoff, S.J.
was named Chaplain, and now after twenty years continues
to be the leader of the Calcutta nurses, and editor of their
quarterly bulletin “Catholic Nurse”.
During this same year at Holy Family Hospital, Patna
City, student nurses were being initiated into the Guild
movement. Under the leadership of Reverend G. Ziebert,
S.J., a strong local Guild was formed. Father Ziebert s
mother was a nurse. During a long period of hospitalization
in an American Army Hospital in Gaya, Bihar, during the
war, Father Ziebert became acutely aware of the role of the
nurse in the cure of the patient, as well as the problems of
the nurse. For twenty years all of Father Ziebert s free
time has been devoted to the development of the Catholic
Nurses Guilds throughout Patna Diocese, and the publishing

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of “The C N G. News Letter” which unites the nurses now
scattered in all parts of the world. His interest in the Indian
nursing profession has inspired Sisters and spintua
directors in other parts of the country to establish local
nursing guilds.
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The report of the 1955 C.H.A. Convention in Patna

summarizes his work:

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was held at Patna Women’s College. The Rev. G. Ziebert, S.J., indefatigable leader and defender of the
Catholic nurses, conducted one of the largest gui
meetings yet to be held... .another “first ” in the history

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of the Catholic Nurses’ Guild.

Therefore, when in 1956 Father James S. Tong, S.J.
received the C.B.C.I. commission to “organise the Nurses
Guilds”, the foundation had been laid. He lists the Guilds

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iwhich he addressed on his 1957 tour:
t

Patna
Calcutta
Vijayawada
Guntur

Tiruchirapalli
Bangalore
Hyderabad
Madras

Jamshedpur
Poona
Delhi

In the annual report to C.B.C.I. and C.H.A. dated Octo
her 30, 1957; Father Tong wrote: “I have addressed nurses
in five or six cities where there were too few to start a Guild.
New Guilds have been started or revived in the following

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places:

Bellary

Ernakulam
(Verapoly)

Quilon

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Belgaum
Lucknow
Bombay
Madurai
Bharananganam Mangalore
Calicut
Nagpur

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Salem
Trichur
Trivandrum
Visakhapatnam.

The Catholic Nurses’ Guilds were never a part of the
Catholic Hospital Association. At the Catholic Hospital
Association Convention in Calcutta, August 10, 1952, the
first signs of a movement to organize the nurses nationally
appeared. The Minutes of the general meeting read:
“Although the C.H.A. has always be?n urging the formation
of Catholic Nurses’ Guilds, the members wondered who
is officially in charge of the formation of these guilds. It
was decided to inquire about the C.N.G. status quo.” So
when Father Tong, under instructions from C.B.C.L,
assumed responsibility for strengthening the nursing apostolate in India there was no delay in uniting these Guilds into
a national organization. On October 11, 1957, Feast of the
Maternity of Our Lady, the Catholic Nurses’ Guild of India
was formed in Lucknow; national officers were elected and
a constitution adopted.
The “Catholic Hospital” reporting on the Convention
says:

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“A notewoithy accomplishment of the year has been the
establishment of the Catholic Nurses’ Guild on a national
basis. The Sisters present at both the Guild and C.H.A.
Conventions agreed that Religious nursing Sisters should
be members of the Guild and that in everything—duties
and privileges, active and passive voice, they would be
on a par with the lay members.”
“Sister Ancilla,
St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur,,
will be official delegate representing the Catholic Nurses’
Guild of India at the World Congress of the International
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Committee of Catholic Nurses in Brussels, and will also
be present at some of the meetings of the International
Catholic Hospital Federation.”

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Sister Ancilla, J.M.J., had been C.H.A. Treasurer since
1951. Her term of office ended at the above Convention,
but in 1958 she was again elected to the Board, and in 196(1
became the first Indian President orthe_Catholic_HosPita.l
Association.
Under the Memorandum of Association of the Catholic
Nurses’ Guild of India, Father Tong, S.J., was now doing
double duty. He was not only the nurses’ national Spiritual
Director, but also had to perforin the work of a national
Executive Secretary, since no one had been appointed to the
latter position. He realised that one person could not do
justice and bring about the potential expansion of both the
Catholic Hospital Association and the Catholic Nurses’
Guild. In addition he had the responsibility of collecting
material, editing and publishing the Guild quarterly “The.
Lotus and the Lamp” as well as the C.H.A. journal. Then
began a ten year appeal to be relieved of this responsibility
for two national organizations.
Finally at the C.H.A. Convention in connection with the
Eucharistic Congress in Bombay in 1964, the Association
took a formal step to try to help him. The following reso­
lution was passed at the General Meeting.

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“To request the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
to appoint some other person to be Director of The
Catholic Nurses’ Guild of India.
“The reason for this is that the two Associations, C.H.A.
and C.N.G.I., have now grown to such a degree of
maturity that each of them needs to have its own
director.’

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On January 1,1967, ten years to the day on which Father
Tong under obedience received this double stewardship,
e w^sjreleasedjromjhe responsibility of the Catholic
Guild of India. The membership on' thisdatewas:
jjfe^emben l 1; full membersJLQJSiassociate members 948.
His Eminence Valerian Cardinal Gracias, with the co­
operation of Mother Anna Dengel, S.C.M.M., in Rome
was able to appoint a national Spiritual Director and an
Executive Secretary for the Guild. Father Tong officially
announced the moving of the Catholic Nurses’ Guild of
India from Delhi to Bombay in an Editorial printed in
“MEDICAL SERVICE” January 1967.
The new national Director of the Catholic Nurses’
Guild of India is RgwHilary Rodrigues, St. Michael’s
Church, Mahim, Bombay 16 DP. From January 1st
the national office is there in the parish house.

“Through the generosity of the Society of Catholic
Medical Missionaries, Sister Mary Ella of their Society
has been made available to act as full time Secretary
in the National Office, Bombay.

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Thus, the Nurses’ Guild has in the past ten years grown
to maturity and is now established independently with
its own personnel, journal, office and financial resources.
The latter, no doubt, are slender, still, they are there.

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It was fitting that in the beginning both the Nurses’
Guild and the Hospital Association should have been
under the same direction. Surely, both are closely re­
lated. The nurses are an important part of the staff
of our hospitals. However, each association grew, while
their Director tended to maintain the same stature.

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Thus, the situation arose in which time given to one
association seemed to be taken from what was seriously
due to the other. This was adequate indication that it
was urgent to divide, as at some stage we divide a diocese
or a religious province.

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“There are several letters of the Holy See urging Reli­
gious Sisters to be members of the International Commit­
tee of Catholic Nurses with which our Nurses’ Guilds are
affiliated. Through the international headquarters our
Guild is affiliated with the World Health Organisation.
Ours is the only Catholic association so affiliated.

“As our Catholic Nurses’ Guild of India begins its second
decade as well as the New Year, let us all wish the officers
and members progressive spiritual success and offer
them our effective cooperation.—James S. Tong, S.J.”

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PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

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There is a black-banded memorial card attached to the
first page of the Minute Book of the Catholic Hospital
Association in which were recorded the meetings from 1943
to 1953. When Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart wrote
the minutes of the first meeting, she inserted the prayer
card containing the picture of ‘‘Henry Theodore,’.
THE EXAMINER of Bombay in its August 7, 1943,
issue gives an account of Mr. Henry Theodore who died
on July 21, 1943, in Madras at the age of 60 years. He was
a cousin of Msgr. Carval, Vicar General, and the funeral
was in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Madras. He was born at
Cuddalore in 1882 and educated there and inMa dras. '
From 1904-1937 he was in Government service, the last 25
years as Manager of the Surgeon-General’s Office. Mr.
Theodore then became Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives
Council.
What hap: ened is evident. Eight days before the found­
ing of the Catholic Hospital Association, the one person
upon whom the Sisters could rely for help in securing Govern­
ment recognition for Catholic schools of nursing in Madras
Province was no longer there to intercede. Sister Mary knew
he could respond to their prayers, so his picture has remained
in the bool, for a quarter of a century. Bulletins I and II
of the ‘Proposed Catholic Hospitals Association which

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Sister Mary retained are each marked “Mr. Theodore’s
Copy”.
The founding of the Catholic Hospital Association was
precipitated by the problem of registration of nurses in
Madras Presidency. A meeting of Sisters from all over the
country had been planned for November 23-27, 1942,
at Nagpur in conjuction with the T.N.A.I. conference. In
a letter accompanying the second Bulletin of the “Proposed
Catholic Hospitals’ Association”, Bishop Thomas writing
from Guntur on November 14, 1942, explained that due to
restriction on travel is seemed more prudent to postpone the
conference. Letters printed in this Bulletin from the Medical
Mission Sisters, who were the only religious community at
that time conducting private schools of nursing in North
India, proved that the Sisters were not facing the same pro­
blems in the Punjab and Bengal, and did not understand
the situation in Madras.
A Catholic Hospital Association was an urgent necessity
so that the Madras Government could be approached for
recognition of Catholic Schools of Nursing, and an Examin­
ing Board for Nursing and Midwifery. THE HERALD,
Calcutta, reporting on the Guntur meeting in July, 1943,
explained: “The exigencies of the time made it i it possible
to have a large representative gathering, so it was decided
to hold a small meeting and avoid further delay.”
Eight of the sixteen Sisters present were superiors of the
hospitals and convents they represented. Their names are
listed in THE HERALD. In 1968, all except one, still
have responsible positions in their respective congregations.
Mother Arnoldine, J.M.J., died a few years ago and her
grave is between that of Sister Mary and Sister Ancilla—
both past presidents of C.H.A.
Reverend Mother Jacquelini is the Provincial of the
Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Mother Angelina is again
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superior at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur; Mother Edwiga
is superior ofthe large novitiate house, St. Stanislaus Convent,
to which is attached St. Philomena’s Hospital.
Mother Elizabeth is the Provincial of the Sisters of St.
Ann, (Swiss), Vijayawada, and is also the Administrator
of St. Ann’s Hospital, one of the largest Catholic hospitals
in India. Sister Natalie is the superior of St. Ann’s Convent,
Vijayawada.
Mother Bernard Ryan has been Mother General of the
Sisters of the Presentation for the past eleven years. She
left India after the founding of C.H.A. for work in Africa,
and later in England. Her companion in 1943 was Mother
Mary Attracta, now superior of the novitiate house in Banga­
lore.
The name of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart is not men­
tioned in the newspaper report, because it was she who wrote
the news release. And as Mother Attracta says “Sister
Mary never talked about herself”. The Superiors sponsored
and officially founded the Catholic Hospital Association.
The eight Superiors signed the Memorandum of Associa­
tion. That is why today the Catholic Hospital Association
looks to the Congregation of Religious of India for
support.
Superiors put into effect Resolution No. 6, which was of
immediate importance.

A-

“It was proposed by Reverend Mother Arnoldine and
seconded by Reverend Mother Edwiga that the Catholic
Hospitals’ Association appoint a Board of Examiners
for Midwifery and Nursing.”
Regulations regarding the registration of nurses in Madras
necessitated this step. An explanation is given in the second
Bulletin “The Proposed Catholic Hospitals’ Association”.
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“There is at present no reciprocity of registration of the
Madras Nurses and Midwives Council with any Province
or State in India.”

H

“As the Madras Government examinations are exclusively
for nurses trained in Government Hospitals, the examina­
tions conducted by recognized training centres must
receive the approval of the Madras Nurses and Midwives
Council... .Unlike the examination in General Nursing,
the examinaton in Midwifery is not exclusively for train­
ees of Government Hospitals.”
Among the Sisters present at the meeting were a n mber
who were registered with the Madras Nurses Council.
Mother Elizabeth had been Matron in the 120 bed Govern­
ment hospital at Masulipatam from 1930 to 1939, when she
left to open St. Ann’s Hospital in Vijayawada, which was
recognized by the Government. Sister Natalie with two
other sisters remained at the Masulipatam hospital until
1946. Among the other religious communities there were
Sisters who held responsible positions in Government
service.

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“THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL” in 1946 reported the
result of the C.H.A. application to the Government of
Madras.
“The Madras Nurses and Midwives Council has recog­
nized St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur, as a training centre
for nurses in diseases of women and children. Courses
in English and Indian languages.

“The Board of Examiners of the Catholic Hospitals’
Association has been recognized by the Nurses and

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Midwives Council of Madras. The Board may train and
examine nurses in accordance with the regulations of
the Madras Government.”
A year later, in the July-August 1947jssue, details of
the Examination in Nursing are given:

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“The Catholic Hospitals’ Board of Examiners in Nursing
conducted their first examination at St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, in April. Written examinations were held
on the 17th and 18th—oral and practical examinations
on the 28th.
“All the candidates passed. The two final year candi­
dates, Sister Theophile and Sister Ancilla, passed with
distinction.

■

“The Examiner in medicine was Lieut. Colonel S. T. Davis,
District Medical Officer, Government Hospital,
Guntur. The co-cxaminer in medicine was Sister Apollonie, R.N., R.M., (Post-graduate course in Delhi), Matron
of the General Hospital,Cuttack. The examiner in surgery
was Dr. G. J. Pacheco, D.M.O. (retd.) of St. Anne’s
Hospital, Bezwada, and the co-examiner in surgery was
Mother M. St. Luke, S.R.N., D.C.M., Matron of the
Zenana Hospital, Hyderabad, Mrs. E. O’Neill, R.N.,
R.M., Matron of the Government Hospital for Women
and Children, Egmore, Madras, attended the examina­
tion as a ‘Visitor’ appointed by the Government on
behalf of the Madras Nurses and Midwives Council.
She expressed herself well pleased.
“The preliminary standard of education required for
admission to the course is Matriculation, eligible S.S.L.C.
or equivalent.

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Catholic Hospitals Board of
“The establishment of a
Examiners in Nursing was ne<icessitated by the fact that
in the Madras Presidency the Government exammaUonS
in nursing are exclusively for nurses trained iri Govern­
ment hospitals. The Catholic Hospitals Board
Examiners has been recognized by the Madras Nurses
and Midwives Council as a body competent to train and
examine nurses in accordance with the provisions of
the Madras Nurses and Midwives Registration Act.

The Examiners listed above had been appointed
November 17, 1946, at the meeting of the C.H.A. Examina­
tion Board, held during the annual C.H.A. Convention
Nazareth Convent, Ootacamund.
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The C H.A. Examination Board was granted recognition
by the Madras Nurses Registration Council for a perio
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extending to June 1950.

At the C.H.A. Convention in Hyderabad in November
1951, this time limit had expired and a decision about the
future of the Examination Board had to be made. The
minutes of the meeting tell what was decided:

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“The Indian Nursing Council will not recognize the
Catholic Hospitals’ Association Examination Board unt
we have a hospital for full general training, i.e. men,
romen and children. St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur
will soon have the required number of male beds f
their students to gain experience in male nursing. Sr
Elizabeth hopes to get recognition for general train ng
at the St. Anne’s Hospital, Bezwada, next year. In
case we can re-apply to the Madras Nursing
It was proposed by Sr. Elizabeth, S.A. ., an

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by Sr. Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M., that we keep the
C.H.A. Examination Board as it stands for one more
year.”

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By this time the Indian Nursing Council established on
December 31,1947^for the purpose of introducing a uniform
standard of training and certification throughout the coun­
try for nurses, midwives and health visitors, was making its
influence felt on the State Nursing Councils. Therefore,
private schools of nursing, meeting national requirements,
were permitted to send nurses for the state examinations.
The C.H.A. at the next meeting replaced the Examination
Board by an Educational Advisory Committee.
Basic nursing education in India is organized and stand­
ardized throughout the country due to the influence of the
Trained Nurses Association of India on Government before
and after Independence. The enforcement of regulations
is not so well controlled. The restriction on the admission
of the number of students to private schools of nursing in
some States is a puzzle in a country where the health stand­
ard is still so low.
Progress in the field of higher nursing eduation has been
more difficult. At its founding the C.H.A. planned not
only a Medical College, but a Collegiate School of Nursing.
|St. John’s Medical College hopes to include a College of
(Nursing in the third phase of its development plan. The
prediction made by Archbishop F. Perier, S.J., of Calcutta
in the second Bulletin of “The Proposed Catholic Hospitals’
Association” still holds true. “In India every University
and everv state have their own programmes and exigencies.
To make them agree will not be an easy business. I dare
say that even if the Government were to approve your As­
sociation. it would bind no state and no University.”
Although the number of Catholic Schools of Nursing
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has increased slowly, their standard of professional education
has been kept at a high level. Their graduates hold re­
sponsible positions throughout the country and abroad.
The demand far exceeds the number available.
In 1944j*hen the Asscociation started there were only
two schools of nursing attached to Catholic General Hospitals
in territory which is now India. By the mid-nineteen-fifties,
this number had increased to six. The new Catholic Hospital
table gives the
Directory of 1968 lists JUL The
— following
in
Catholic
hospitals
total number of students in training
xz AW ** A A- —— — —

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during the year 1967.

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R.N.R.M. R.N.
1,029

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Nurse-Midw:
201

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♦Punjab State Medical Faculty Examinations

Pharmacy:
When the “Shore Report” was published in 1946, there
were only 75 qualified Pharmacists in the entire country.
Sister Mary took up the cause at the C.H.A. Convention
November 1946 at Ootacamund.

“The President, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, spoke
of the Pharmacy Bill which had been introduced into
the Central Legislature, embodying the recommendation
of the Shore Committee. Monsignor Panjikaran stres­
sed the importance of having our Sisters trained in phar­
macy, and the difficulty at present to get them trained.
It was resolved to form a Pharmacy Board to inquire
into the matter and to arrange a course of instruction.
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Two years later, November 1948, Sister Mary again stres­
sed the need for compounders, and requested the members
of the religious congregations present to ask their superiors
to have Sisters trained as Pharmacists, who in turn could
train compounders. Sister Mary Servatius, B.A., L.T.,
Sister of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, had appeared in the Madras Government Examin­
ation for the Diploma in Pharmacy and had passed with
distinction in 1947.
By a strange coincidence three Sisters Pharmacists from
abroad came to staff Catholic Hospitals in 1947. They were
Sister Peter Julian, J.M.J., from Australia, to St. Joseph’s
Hospital, Guntur; Sister Crescentia, S.C.N., Nazareth Hos­
pital, Mokameh, Bihar; Sister Jane Frances, S.C.M.M,,
Holy Family Hospital, Patna, Bihar. The latter two
were from the United States. This trio of Sisters have had
an impact on pharmacy education in Catholic medical work,
the extent of which is not easy to calculate. Sister Mary
influenced and united them.
Sister Peter Julian and Sister Theophile dramatically
describe a scene in Guntur one day in 1948. When Sister
Mary heard that Dr. David, the Director of Medical Service,
was in the town she sent Sisters Ancilla and Theophile out
to find him. He was a very important person in that part
of the country, and this was an embarrassing procedure for
two young Sisters. They located him and like the true
gentleman he was, accompanied them to St. Joseph’s
Hospital. Sister Mary explained to him that compounders
were very much needed, that there was no training program,
and requested permission for St. Joseph’s Hospital to start
a compounder’s course. He told her to submit the applica­
tion in wTiting. When she looked distressed at such a pro­
cedure, he caught on and assured her that it would not
“lay on the table indefinitely”.

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Then Sister Mary had Sister Peter Julian typing for two
days—the application to the Medical Director, and letters
to Sister Crescentia and Sister Jane Frances. Sister Peter
Julian, new to India, did not have the least idea who the
Sisters were to whom she was writing about starting a course
for Compounders. True to his word, within a month Guntur
received the permission from the Medical Director, and
from 1949 to 1961 St. Joseph’s Hospital was recognized
by the Government as a training centre for Compounders

(Pharmacist Assistants).
The two Sister Pharmacists in Bihar began negotiations
for a Compounders’ Course and were affiliated with the exam­
ining board in the Punjab, Sister Crescentia was elected
President of the Pharmacy Section of the Indian Pharma­
ceutical Congress on January 17, 1952. This was sponsored
by the All India Pharmacists Federation, Calcutta. The
compounder’s course was also started at Nazareth Hospital,
Mokameh, and at Holy Family Hospital, Patna City, to which
was added a six months course in Laboratory Technology.
Many lay personnel and religious Sisters were trained in
these three programs. Today they are working throughout
the country in Government, private and Catholic institutions.
Annually the Andhra Pharmacy Council registers 28 Sisters
of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, who took the two year compoun­
der course in Guntur. This does not include their Sisters

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who are registered in Mysore.
These compounders would like to obtain admission to
the Degree and the Diploma Pharmacy course, but the tew
schools giving these courses in India, cannot accommodate
the applicants. The Government program reported in
THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL in January 1957 has stdl
to be implemented: It reads

“In summarizing the conclusions of the recent meeting
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of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association held in Calcutta,
it appears that the “Compounder” as such is to be
gradually eliminated. Hospitals or other institutions
offering this training programme will no longer be re­
cognized for educational purposes, except for practical
work. The proposal for replacement is:

Bachelor of Pharmacy—a three year programme in a
College.
Diploma of Pharmacy—a two years programme.

Both must be followed by 740 hours of practical work.”

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Ten years later only a few schools have the Bachelor of
Pharmacy programme.
The two Indian Sisters who were Sister Mary’s first edu­
cational protegees, have contributed much to the Catholic
Hospital Association, and serve as examples of Sister Mary’s
broad interest in professional medical education. When
the superiors in Holland decided that these first two Sisters
should be trained as nurses for the Society of Jesus, Mary
. nd Joseph, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart planned their
.ducation program. It was a heavy schedule. While the
Sisters were in training for their R.N., R.M., which they
secured through the C.H.A. Examination Board, they were
studying privately for the B.A. Degree which was granted
in 1948. Between 1948-1950 they secured a Diploma in
Pharmacy, and took the Sister Tutor’s Course. In 1951
they both obtained a first class pass in the Madras
Government Examination for “Health Visitors”.
The founders of the Catholic Hospital Association, them­
selves, were representative of the high standard of professional efficiency for which the Association stands. In 1947
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two members of the C.H.A. Board received government
honours. Sister M. Laetitia, Vice-President of the Associa­
tion was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Silver Medal.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S., of St. Anne’s Hospital, Bezwada,
received the Kajs^-LHhitLiioldJMedal. Now Mother
Provincial of the Sisters of St. Anne in India, she had come
from Switzerland to Visakhapatnam in 1927. Two days
after her arrival she was sent south to the Railway Hospital
in Golden Rock, near Tiruchirapalli. The Presentation
Sisters from Madras had recently taken over the nursing
service in the hospital, and the two Sisters there needed help.
One of the Sisters was Mother Mary Attracta, First VicePresident of C.H.A. from 1945 to 1947, and Member of the
Board from 1952 to 1955. Her name also appears in the list
for 1950. Mother Elizabeth and Mother Attracta worked
together for'eight months at Golden Rock. Both were
highly qualified nurses, the former trained in Switzerland

and the latter in Ireland.
When Sister Elizabeth returned to her own community
in what is now Andhra Pradesh, she was assigned to the
Government hospital in Masulipatam, Vijayawada Diocese.
After nine years as Matron and O. R. Supervisor, she started
St. Ann’s Hospital, which is mentioned elsewhere in these
pages. Thus the three communities of Sisters who founded
the C.H.A., had been acquainted for many years previous to
1943, and knew and admired Sister Mary.
The Sisters who lived with Sister Mary for so many years
say that intellectually she was far above the average person.
She was a student all her days and never wasted a precious
moment of time. When walking back and forth between
buildings there was always a notebook in her hand. After
her death, it took Sister Peter Julian months to sort and
preserve or dispose of her notes and writings and reference
material. She read continually, and kept abreast of current

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topics, especially in the medical field.
When she took up medical practice in Guntur she had
no one to assist her. She, herself, began a training program
for medical aids. She had only the poorest facilities, and
no assistant for surgery, so restricted herself to emergency
cases. Her practice was almost entirely confined to women
and children; she became an expert diagnostician and a
skilled obstetrician.
Mother Elizabeth, S.A.S., remembers her first meeting
with Sister Mary about 1934. One of their Sisters was
very ill and all the doctors, including specialists had said
the case was hopeless and death was only a matter of
time. The Sisters had heard that there was a Sister doctor
a few miles distant in Guntur. They knew nothing about
her, and had no hope that she would be able to help. How­
ever, they thought it would be a consolation to the patient.
Therefore, a request was sent for Dr. Glowery to come.
She came, examined the patient, made the diagnosis, and
wrote out a prescription, saying that after taking the medica­
tion prescribed the patient should be all right. This was
done in the presence of the other doctors who had been
handling the case. She explained to them her findings, and
her prescription. This little Sister, who was very petit
stood professional and poised among these men. Within a
few days the Sister was in normal health.
Sister Mary gave herself completely to the people.
Priests and Sisters remember her patiently seeing two hun­
dred and more patients in a long morning. The heat was
intense and in the 1920’s and 1930’s there were no fans.
In the C.H.A., Mother Kinesburge knew her as the person
who produced the ideas and inspired others to action. Her
talents did not lie in the field of organization, so she left that
to others. It was Mother Kinesburge, as C.H.A. Secretary
who was responsible for the Association’s functioning in

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the early years.
Mother M. Kinesburge is a highly qualified English
nurse. She came to Ceylon in 1931, where the Franciscan
Missionaries of Mary were staffing the General Hospital.
It was a thousand bed institution, the largest hospital in the
East, and approximately 70 Sisters were working there.
From 1934-1936 Mother Kinesburge was on the staff of
Osmania Hospital, Hyderabad, and from there went to
Victoria Hospital, Jabalpur, where she was Matron and
Nursing Superintendent until 1950. After transferring to
Villa Theresa, Bombay, for a time, she travelled throughout
India visiting the houses of the Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary.
.
Now retired at Child Jesus Hospital, Tiruchirapalh,
Mother Kinesburge helps with the hospital and convent
business and book-keeping. The young Sisters affectionately
call her their “Mother Superintendent”.

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PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATES

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During the twenty-five years of its existence, the Catholic
Hospital Association has gradually become involved in
other national and international organizations with mutual
professional, social and economic interests and aims. The
involvement becomes greater with better national and inter­
national communication. The Foundress received her in­
spiration for such a hospital union through contact with
i, similar organizations in Holland, Canada, the United States
and other European countries.
n1.
The Catholic Hospital Association of America founded
in 1915, and conducted by the religious orders of the Church
and under the authority of the Bishops, has contributed to
C.H.A. of India through the years. Articles from its pub­
lication “Hospital Progress” have frequently been reprinted,
beginning with “The American Way”, written by the second
President of the Catholic Hospital Association of America,
Rev. A. M. Schwitalla, S.J. In 1958, the third President,
Rev. John J. Flannagan, S.J., cooperated with Father J.
Tong, S.J., in circulating the “Code of Hospital Ethics”
in India. In 1961, this Association sponsoied_ _Father
Tong’s return to the U.S. where he obtained the Diploma in
Hospital Administration from St. Louis University. In
1967 it contributed his air travel to attend the International

Catholic Confederation of Hospitals Convention in Chicago,
126

and the congress of the American Hospital Association.
The International Catholic Confederation of Hospitals
with its office in the Netherlands, through the International
Secretary, Rt. Rev. Mgr. A. A. M-Sanders wrote to C.H.A.
office on January 10, 1961:
“We are happy to tell you that on July 2, 1960, the
Papal Secretariat of State informed us that our Statutes
have been approved by His Holiness, Pope John XXIII, ad
experimentum for a period of four years. A copy of the
definitive text of these Statutes will be sent to you in due
time.” This Confederation had been in the process of form­
ation since July 16, 1951, when Catholic delegates attend­
ing the seventh Congress of the International Hospital
Federation met in Brussels.
In June 1965, the Executive Director of the Catholic
Hospital Association of India was invited to attend meetings
with the Executive Directors of other Catholic Hospital
Associations. The trip for Father Tong was financed by
Monsignor Sanders of Holland, and Catholic Relief ServicesMeetings were held in Brussels and Stockholm. The im­
portant result of these meetings was summarized by Father
Tong in his 1965 Annual Report to C.H.A.

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“The essential resolution of these meetings w as that each
of the national Directors should endeavour to extend the
Catholic Hospital Association to other countries in his
vicinity where it did not already exist. Thus, Mon­
signor Mulenbroeck of Germany was asked to extend
in Europe and to try to form a European Federation;
Father Flanagan to extend in Latin American countries.
I was asked to extend in Asia, and as a first step tocompile a complete mailing list of all the Catholic hospitals
and dispensaries in Asia. Responsible people in Europe
have been pleased with the C.H.A. of India Directory,

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and it is something of this sort, they hope we would be
able to do for the whole of Asia. Our Directory is
used by the Catholic Medical Mission Board of New
York, and other agencies throughout the world.”

While in Stockholm, Father Tong attended the world
convention of the International Hospital Federation, whose
headquarters_are_in_London. It is a secular association
federating national hospital associations throughout the
world. In 1965 the Catholic Hospital Association of India
was granted “B” (associate) membership in this Federation.
Soon after his appointment as Director, Father Tong
5^ became acquainted with the Christian Medical Association
of India, which until January 1963, was an association of
personal members, primarily physicians only. At its Con­
vention in Bangalore in 1963, the association decided to
admit hospitals as institutional members. For many years
the Catholic Hospitals with training programmes in com­
pounding, laboratory technology and X-ray had to depend
upon examinations conducted by the C.M.A.I. and approved
by the Government for certification of their graduate
students. The 1968 Hospital Directory being published
by the C.H.A. office, will be a Christian Hospital Directory
and include hospitals under the C.M.A.I.
The history of the “Indian Hospital Association” was
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printed in ‘‘MEDICAL SERVICE” in 1961:
“On September 6,1961 at Bhawalpur House in New Delhi
a one day seminar was held on hospital administration.
It was organized under the inspiration of Dr. John R.
McGibony, M.D., who for two years held the title and
post of Consultant on Hospital and Administrative
Medicine to the Directorate Geneial of Health Services,
Government of India. All the administrators of the
128

39 hospitals of Delhi were invited to the seminar, and
most of them came. Prominent persons from the Minis­
try of Health and other people interested in hospitals
participated.
“Those who attended the seminar, the first of its kind in
Delhi, were so pleased with the results that they formed a
committee with the immediate purpose of organizing
seminars on a similar pattern. Two executive members
of C.H.A. in Delhi were on this committee.

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“This interim committee of 12 persons held a meeting at
Willingdon Hospital on October 20 to discuss future plans.
The discussion included a name to be given to this budding
association. The one that won unanimous acceptance,
suggested by Father Tong, was “Indian Hospital Asso­
ciation”. The vision was that meetings and seminars
for improvement of all aspects and sections of hospital
administration should be held throughout the country.
The main purpose of the organization would be to im­
prove professional hospital education and administra­
tion throughout India.”

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This “Indian Hospital Association” which was visualized
as a counterpart of the T.N.A.I. with national influence, has
not expanded its activities and is still confined to the city of
Delhi. Father Tong, C.H.A. Director, has been a member
of the governing board since 1961, and was requested to
become editor of their publication “HOSPITAL ADMINIS­
TRATION”, a quarterly journal. On October 29, 1967,
the Catholic Association of India was affiliated with the
Indian Hospital Association.
Besides these professional contacts with other hospital
associations, C.H.A has been closely affiliated with Catholic !-y

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Relief Services. The Program Director, Mr. Frank Senz,
at the C H A. Convention in New Delhi in October 1963,
spoke about the C.R.S. work:

‘‘CRS-U.S.C.C., the official agency of the American
Bishops for overseas relief, is the largest American vol­
untary agency working abroad. Financial support is
derived from the Bishop’s Relief Fund, a collection taken
on Laetare Sunday in all parishes in the U.S.

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“The work of the CRS is primarily the distribution of
relief supplies (food, clothing, medicines) to the needy
overseas. Distribution is made without regard to race,
caste or creed, through indigenous Catholic agencies,
missionaries, or local government welfare agencies,
depending upon the situation in any particular area.
“The foods distributed are normally those obtained as a
donation from the U.S. Dept, of Agriculture; the clothing
from the annual Thanks giving Clothing Collection. Med­
icine and other relief and emergency supplies are donated
to, or purchased by the Agency. CRS works closely
with the Catholic Medical Mission Board, New York,
in that our agency ships the medicines to the countries and
consignees as directed by the CMMB.
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“CRS in addition seeks out projects for socio-economic
development, self-help, hospitals and dispensaries.
These projects are rarely funded by CRS. Normally
they are endorsed by the director and forwarded to the
agency’s office in Geneva. This office maintains liaison
with all the fund raising organizations throughout the
world, and knows which of these would be receptive to a
particular project.
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“CRS is dedicated to the development of indigenous
Catholic welfare agencies. Such agencies eventually
become members of the International Caritas which has
its headquarters in Rome. Our counterpart in India is
3 Catholic Charities India.
“Relief supplies that are brought into India through the
Catholic Relief Services are permitted entry free of duty
under the terms of the Indo-American Agreement of
1951. According to this Agreement the ocean freight
is paid by the U.S. Government and the land transport
in India is paid by the Indian Government. The food
is usually donated by the American Government, but the
medicines and hospital equipment are donated by other
private agencies.”

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Since 1961 the Catholic Hospital Association has also been
connected with the Indo-German Social Service, the Indian
branch of the German Bishops’ organization, MISEREOR,
in an advisory capacity. In September 1961 the Extension
Service of the Indian Social Institute through a contract with
MISEREOR undertook to investigate, study, approve and
recommend projects. The Indo-German Social Service
office handles the business and legal aspects of the work.
In the beginning C.H.A. was investigating projects for
MISEREOR. Father Tong wrote in 1962, “This year we
have in the interest of our hospitals and dispensaries visited
institutions in 27 dioceses. Often it was to write a report for
Misereor”. In 1968 projects submitted directly to the
Catholic Hospital Association from its member institutions,
are frequently referred to the field workers of the Extension
Service for investigation. The project is then written up
in the C.H.A. office. Thus there is a mutual working to­
gether on medical applications.
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Catholic Charities of India, when concerned with medical
projects, works in close coordination with C.H.A., both
offices being located in the same building.
Projecting this INVOLVEMENT into the future, Dr. to
L. Monteiro, M.D., Dean of St. John’s Medical College,
and Vice-President of C.H.A., hopes that the Association
which initiated the Medical College, and worked so hard
to make it a reality, will contribute towards its growth and
development through a co-ordinated effort.
One of the principal objectives of the College is to ini­
tiate, and actively foster, collaboration with other institutions,
so as to bring about the integrated development in medical
education, research, and care. The Government of Mysore
and the Central Government have welcomed the establish­
ment of the College. Already the College is engaged in
teaching and research programs connected with the National
Institute of Health, U.S.A., the All-India Institute of Mental
Health, the Church of India, and the School of Aviation
Medicine, Bangalore.
To fulfill the purpose which the Sisters had in mind in
sponsoring a Catholic Medical College in India, there must
be established a program whereby all the major Catholic
hospitals in the country will profit from the service of graduate
doctors from the College, and in turn aid the College in its
educational program. The Catholic Hospital Association,
the Catholic hospitals, and the Catholic Medical College
’ must be deeply INVOLVED with each other and with
the medical planning of the country.

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THE ADMINISTRATION

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Legal and business-like procedure was integral in the
establishment of the Catholic Hospital Association. The
legal adviser of the Bangalore Diocese, and to the Apostolic
Delegate, presided at the second meeting of the Association
in April 1944. Very Reverend Monsignor J.A. De’Rosario, S.J., a Doctor of Canon Law, was a retired Judge, and a
late vocation to the priesthood. He discussed the Memo­
randum of Association with the Sisters, and advised slight
changes. He helped draw up the Constitutions and Rules
of the Association. Monsignor’s later years were spent as
parish priest at Golden Rock, and at Campion High School,
Tiruchirapalli, where he died. He is buried at Golden
Rock, so named from the huge rock formation jutting out
of a flat expanse, and a landmark on the road to the Tiru­
chirapalli airport.
Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M., the first Secretary of
the Association, now resides at Child Jesus Hospital, Tiru­
chirapalli, almost in view of this Rock and Msgr. De’Rosario’s final resting place. In 1944 she was living in Jabal-)
pur, so this became the official office of the C.H.A. Conse­
quently, the Catholic Hospital Association was registered
with the JOINT STOCK COMPANIES in accordance with
Section IV of the Societies Registration Act. XXI of 1860,
at Nagpur on 24th August, 1944.

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Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M., was Secretary from
1944 to 1951. There are three documentary records of the
early yeais of the C.H.A. Three Minute Books were keptone for the General C.H.A. Meetings, another for the Coun­
cil or Board Meetings, and a third for the Catholic

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Medical College Committee.
Mother Angelina, J.M.J. of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Gun­
tur, was the first Treasurer from 1944 to 1951, so the bank
account was opened with the Imperial Bank, Guntur. Sis­
ter Ancilla, the second Treasurer, was also at this address.
In 1957, Sister M. Caroline, S.C.M.M., was elected to the
office, so the banking was transferred to New Delhi, where
Sister was on the staff of Holy Family Hospital.
Membership fees, donations from Bishops, priests, and
benefactors among the laity provided the first C.H.A. funds

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for administrative purposes.
A prominent person who came to the assistance of the
Association was Reverend Father G. Proksch, S.V.D. At
the business meeting of the C.H.A. in Nagpur, November
1945, a proposal was made to ask him to arrange a
concert for the benefit of the Association. In April 1946
he visited Sister Mary at St. Joseph’s Convent, Guntur,
to make arragements for a series of concerts to collect
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funds for the C.H.A.
The news release in May 1946 said: “Reverend Father
Proksch, the well known Viennese vocalist, with a group
of twelve Bhil boys, is visiting various dioceses of India
giving concerts in aid of the Catholic Hospital Association.
The boys have well trained voices and number two expert
dancers in their group. Very favourable reports on their
entertainments have been received, indicating that their
efforts are meeting with great success.
The result of the concerts was published in THE
CATHOLIC HOSPITAL, Sept.-Oct. 1946. “A cheque

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for Rs. 1,000 has been received from Rev. Father Proksch
as a result of the concerts arranged in Nagpur, Secundera­
bad and Hyderabad. The Catholic Hospital Association
is extremely grateful to Rev. Father Proksch and to all those
who did so much to help him, and in helping him helped
the Catholic Hospital Association.”
Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M. had been transferred
from Jabalpur, so at the Business Meeting November 30,
1951, it was proposed by Mother Anna Dengel and seconded
by Sister Florence Joseph, S.C.N. that headquarters of
C.H.A. should be transferred from Jabalpur to Guntur.
This decision was reversed at the next meeting August 7,
1952 due to the legal technicalities involved.
During the annual C.H.A. Convention in Patna in 1955,
a suggestion was made that the Constitution and Rules
of the Association be revised and brought up-to-date.
Therefore, the next Convention in Calcutta in 1956 was
entirely devoted to discussions on this topic. It could have
been more efficiently carried out by a committee appointed
for the purpose, but instead was thrown open in the general
meetings, and occupied the delegates attention for the
duration of the Convention.
. As a result, when Rev. James S. Tong, S.J. became
Executive Director in January 1957, this was a matter await­
ing attention. A new Memorandum of Association was
drawn up, approved, and after legal advice registered, at
Delhi on 27th February, 1961 “under The Societies Regis­
tration Act XXI of 1860 (Punjab Amendment) Act 1957,
as Extended to the Union Territory of Delhi.”
Membership with voting privileges has always been in­
vested in Catholic medical institutions, or religious com­
munities. Individual membership is “associate” only,
and canies with it no vote. The encouragement of form­
ation of Medical Guilds and Nurses Guilds, independent

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of C.H.A., was promoted from the beginning to organize
the doctors and nurses who could not have voting privileges
in the Association. In order to safeguard sound ethical
principles for which the Association was formed, and for
which it stands, institutional voting was adopted.
On its twenty-fifth anniversary the Catholic Hospital
Association still has no certain source of income to keep
it solvent. It must depend upon donations from a few
interested benefactors to augment the amount received
through membership fees, which vary greatly from year to
year. These donations for the most part are directly due
to personal contacts of the Executive Director. To keep
the Association “a power in the land” as Sister Mary ex­
pressed it, Ulis is a matter which must be given adminis'' trative consideration.
The future of the Catholic Hospital Association will
depend upon its Governing Board, composed of members
of the Catholic medical institutions. It is a duty of the
religious superiors and the Catholic hospitals to introduce
their most capable members to the Association, so that they
may be nominated for election. In 1943 the religious com­
munities gave of their best. Can the religious superiors,
now themselves organized in the Congregation of Religious
of India, do less for their hospitals, their sisters, and the
Church. In the present day world where the prevailing spirit
is organized disobedience, the Association represents
organized MEDICAL SERVICE under the hierarchy of
the Church for India.
The Catholic Hospital Association founded by Sisters,
for the Sisters, is dependent upon OUR SISTERS?

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OUR SISTERS - OUR HOSPITALS

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“Out of nothing” is a phrase which tempts research into
time and space of .the past. What does it reveal? That
India, ancient land of St. Thomas, of St. Francis Xavier,
of the Church, was a world of men. Women were confined
to the enclave of the home or the cloister. There were
no Catholic hospitals on the sub-continent of India just
one hundred and fifty years ago.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny were the first to arrive.
In 1826 they came from their missions in Africa to the
French territory of Pondicherry. When government hos­
pitals were built they staffed them. Four Sisters are still
at the Government Hospital, Karikal. In 1862 the Sisters
went north to Chanderanagore, near Calcutta. Here they
staffed a French Government hospital until Independence.
Mother Felix was one of the first C.H.A. board members.
Between 1945 and 1957 Mother Charles who is now at St.
Peter’s Convent, Bangalore, and Sister Marie Rose, ad­
ministrator of their hospital in Goa, gave fifteen years of
devoted service to C.H.A. as board members.
The next group of religious to come to India were the
Loreto Nuns who arrived in Calcutta December 1841.
Although a teaching order, they founded the Daughters
of St. Anne in Ranchi and Calcutta, some of whom are in
the medical apostolate. The history of Loreto in India
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is now in the press. Called “THE FIRST BLADE by
Mother M. Colmcille, I.B.V.M., it contains an item of
medical interest.
“In 1845 the Vicar-Apostolic, Bishop Carew, demanded
that the nuns undertake the management of the new Medical
College..T... The Medical College of Calcutta had been
established to train Indian students in western medicine..
.... In the 1840’s European doctors, especially surgeons,
were generally feared, the idea of hospitalization was dread­
ed, so only the desperately sick, or the abandoned poor
would be found in a “Native” hospital. As for the women,
the higher castes were still purdahed, and no woman even
of the lowest caste would allow herself to be treated by a
male physician
It can have been only the outcastes,
the hopelessly diseased, who were brought to the wards of
the Female Hospital.
“Against this background, it is easier to understand why
the Superior was reluctant to let her nuns undertake the
supervision of the Hospital. But the two year contract
had been accepted in their name.... Their main work was
to administer the finances, and to see to the cleanliness of
the wards and the kitchen; we may be sure that they did also
whatever womanly sympathy suggested to ease the sufferings
and soothe the dying moments of many a poor woman.
Soon Dr. Stuart addressed a circular letter to the elite of
Calcutta society inviting them to come and see the ‘miracle’
wrought by the nuns, who ‘had changed a den of abomina­
tion and filth into a comfortable habitation’.... The day
the contract expired, the Superior handed over the funds
and keys to a respectable widow.”
Many Sisters followed in staffing the non-medical de­
partments of hospitals, especially the dietary and the house­
keeping departments. In a country where these hospital
services are so often deficient, this has been no small contri138

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bution to building up a medical service for India.
The third of this first trio of Sisters in India were the
Presentation Sisters who landed in Madras on January 13,
1842. We have a description of their home: “A walled
town" around Fort St. George once the residence of the
governor and officials of the East India Company. Racial
agglomeration gave the colony the somewhat contemptious
name of Blacktown, formally changed to Georgetown in
1912. The Presentation home was a former Capuchin
monastery without a garden; the only open air space for
Tecreation was a roof walk.” Dispensaries were attached
to their schools and orphanages. They staffed the South
Indian Railway Hospital from 1928 to 1942. About the
time of the founding of C.H.A. eight of their Sisters were in
nurse’s training at Stanley Hospital, Madras.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy, who arrived De­
cember 5, 1849, at Visakhapatnam, have been outstanding
in medical history in India. From 1908 through 1964
they staffed five government hospitals in Cuttack, Visakha­
patnam and Kakinada; the Sisters working in these hospi­
tals ranged from 25 to 66 at a time depending upon staffing
needs. Sister Appolonie, C.H.A. Board Member from
1950 to 1954, was Matron of the Orissa Medical College
Hospital, Cuttack, and one of the first members of the
Indian Nursing Council. She was also one of the exami­
ners of the C.H.A. Examination Board. Sister now lives
at St. Joseph’s Convent, Vizianagram, Andhra Pradesh.
Before the turn of the century seven more congregations
settled in south India, and seven more to the central and
north. Their apostolate included medical work. Today /% <there are more than fifty foreign congregations contributing
to the staffing of hospitals and dispensaries. In almost
every diocese there are communities of Indian sisterhoods
who have been founded by these Sisters, or through their

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example. The history of the religious communities in India
would be a book in itself, and a most interesting one.
Our Sisters were not the first medical pioneers. Medical
missionaries of the Christian Churches had forged ahead
and set an example, and a pattern for health work. In
Vellore, Ludhiana, and throughout India their medical
apostolate was far in advance. It was these doctors and
nurses who often inspired Catholic Sisters to leave all and
and follow them.
The history of these Sisters would answer a question.
What percent of the 7,000 nurses listed in the Bhore Re­
port in 1946 were religious Sisters? It could not have been
an insignificant number, because in 1956 fifty secular hospi­
tals were listed in the records of the Catholic Hospital As­
sociation, and this list was far from inclusive of all the insti­
tutions staffed by Catholic Sisters. From Holland, Swit­
zerland, Italy, France, America, Ireland, Germany, Bel­
gium, Portugal, Spain, professionally trained and untrained,
they were working in hospitals throughout the country.
The “nothing” at the time the Catholic Hospital Asso­
ciation was founded consisted of five Catholic general hos­ (r\
pital Sj nine maternity hospitals, one tuberculosis sanitorium lb
and one leprosy hospital. But in addition there was this (c-s^l
little army of religious Sisters in government and secular
hospitals from the north to the south of India, from Sylhet
to Bombay. These Sisters have gradually flowed out to
build up private Catholic medical institutions in village
and city.
SOMETHING has been formed from the “nothing”
of 1943.

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THE CATHOLIC HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

3

Meetings and Conventions

Year
1943

Place

GUNTUR—St. Joseph’s Convent
Society of J.M.J.

Date

July 29

Rt. Rev. Ignatius Mummadi, D.D.

1944
4^

1944

1945

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First C.H.A. meeting
16 Sisters present, representing
3 religious congregations in
6 dioceses

BANGALORE—Good Shepherd Con- April 22
vent. Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of
the Good Shepherd
Rt. Rev. Thomas Pothacamury, D.D.
H.E. Mgr. Leo P. Kierkels, C.P.

Second C.H.A. meeting
35 Sisters present, representing 11
religious congregations

HYDERABAD—Holy Rosary Convent Nov. 25-26
Francisan Missionaries of Mary
Rt. Rev. Thomas Pothacamury, D.D.

First Annual Convention
8 religious congregations present
Council members elected for 3
years

NAGPUR—The Catholic Institute,
1 he Cathedral

Nov. 14-15

Second Annual Convention
30 delegates representing 10

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Rt. Rev. Louis F. Gayet, D.D.

1946
•!

OOTACAMUND—Nazareth Convent
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary

religious congregations from 21
houses, including Ceylon
Nov. 16-17

Third Annual Convention
16 delegates, representing 9 con­
gregations.
Location suddenly
changed from Calcutta.

Rt. Rev. R. Feuga, Bishop of Mysore
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1947

NELLORE—St. Mary’s Convent
Society of J.M.J.
Very. Rev. Msgr. Prior,
Vicar General

Oct. 18-19

Fourth Annual Convention
Delegates from: Alleppy, Banga­
lore, Chandanagore, Bimlipatam,
Guntur, Kumbakonam, Kurnool,
Nagpur, Nellore, Trivandrum,
Mymensingh

1948

CALCUTTA—St. Xavier’s College
Society of Jesus

Nov. 19-20

Fifth Annual Convention
20 Sisters, representing 8 congre­
gations
Council increased by 4 members

ft

Very Rev. Msgr. J. Fernandez,
Vicar General

1949

BOMBAY—Villa Theresa
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Rt.. Rev V. Gracias, D.D,

Nov. 4-6

Sixth Annual Convention
23 delegates present

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1950

MADRAS—St. Thomas Convent
Franciscan Missonaries of Mary
Dom Manuel de Medeiros Guerreiro
Bishop of Mylapore

Oct. 19-22

Convention
Seventh
Annual
Discussions:
Pharmacy, Social Service, Social
Medicine, Nursing

1951

HYDERABAD—Holy Rosary Convent Nov. 29Dec. 2
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Rt. Rev. Mgr. Alfonsus Beretta, D.D.

Eighth Annual Convention
23 delegates, representing 7 con­
gregations

1952

CALCUTTA—St. Xavier’s College
Society of Jesus

Aug. 7-10

Ninth Annual Convention
29 delegates, representing 14 con­
gregations

Rev. Charles Vrithoff, S.J.

Nov. 5-8

1953

NAGPUR—St. Francis deSales
Cathedral Hall
Rev. Msgr. E. Denge, V.G.

1954

BANGALORE—Good Shepherd Con- Nov. 25-28
vent, Sisters of Our Lady of the
Good Shepherd
Most Rev. Thomas Pothacamury, D.D.
H.E. Msgr. Leo P. Kierkels, C.P.

Tenth Annual Convention
16 delegates, representing 7 congre­
gations
Eleventh Annual Convention
48 delegates present

1955
A

PATNA—Patna Women’s College
Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel

Rt. Rev. A. F. Wildermuth, S.J., D.D.

I

)

Nov. 11-15 Twelfth Annual Convention
46 delegates, representing 15 com­
munities

1956

CALCUTTA—Loreto House
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Rt. Rev. Mgr. H.E. Barber, V.G.

Oct. 19-21 Thirteenth Annual Convention
45 delegates present

1957

LUCKNOW—Loreto Convent
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Rt. Rev. Albert De Vito, O.F.M. Cap.

Oct. 13-15

1958

SECUNDERABAD—St. Francis Con­ Oct. 3-5
vent Hall
Sisters of Charity of SS. Cap. & Ger.
Most Rev. Joseph Mark Gopu, D.D.

Fifteenth Annual Convention
60 delegates present

BOMBAY—Sophia College
Religious of the Sacred Heart
Rt. Rev. L. Periera, D.D.
His Eminence Valerian Cardinal

Sixteenth Annual Convention
75 delegates pi esent
THEME: Technical Excellence
and the Christlike Spirit

1959

—fr

e

Oct. 20-24

I
I
fl

f

Fourteenth Annual Convention
30 delegates present
THEME: Integrating Public Health
into Hospital Routine

THEME: The Hospital Apostolate in a Changing Era

I

1

7?

t

t

Gracias, D.D. announced at the Board
Meeting that Bangalore had been select­
ed as the site of the Medical College

v.

1960

ERNAKULAM—Lisie Hospital
Medical Sisters of St. Joseph
Most. Rev. J. Parecattil, D.D.

Aug. 20-22

Seventeenth Annual Convention
120 delegates present
THEME: Energizing Education
in the Hospital

1961

MADRAS—Stella Maris College
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Most Rev. Louis Mathias, S.D.B., D.D.

Sept. 29Oct. 2

Eighteenth Annual Convention

1962

KATPADI—Auxilium College
Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians

Sept. 29Oct. 1

Nineteenth Annual Convention
110 delegates present

1963

DELHI—Si. Xavier’s School
Society of Jesus
Very Rev. Msgi. Pio Laghi
Internunciature

Oct. 26-28

Twentieth Annual Convention
108 delegates present
THEME: Chaiity and Science—
the Christian Medical Ideal

1964

BOMBAY—Government Dental College
Most Rev. J. Attipetty, Ph.D., D.D.

Nov. 28Dec. 1

Twenty-first Annual Convention
held in connection with the Eu­
charistic Congress

89 delegates present

JI, -J, ...... L_.• V

1

■ ■■I

THEME: Catholic Hospitals in
the Service of the Country

1965

1966

i

1967

1968

-

BANGALORE—Mt. Carmel College
T.O.C.D. Apostolic

Oct. 2-5

Twenty-second Annual Convention
THEME: What Does the Future
Hold

CALCUTTA—Loreto House, I.B.V.M.
Most Rev. Pius Kerketta, S.J., D.D.
Archbishop of Ranchi

Oct. 22-24

Twenty-third Annual Convention209 Delegates present
THEME: The Vatican Council
II and Responsible Medical Ser­
vice

VIJAYAWADA—Loyola College
Society of Jesus
Rt. Rev. Ambrose De Battista, D.D.

Dec. 30Jan. 1

Twenty-fourth Annual Conven­
tion 185 delegates present
THEME: Outreach Into the
Community

DELHI—Mavalankar Hall

Sept. 29Oct. 1

Twenty-fifth Annual Convention
Silver Jubilee
THEME: The Social Aspects of
Hospital Work

t

I

L
GOVERNING BOARD

r

Elected
t Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
St Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur, A.P.
First
Mother Lucy, R.G.S.
Vice President St. Martha’s Hospital
Bangalore.
Second
t, Sister M. Laetitia, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
Secretary
Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
St. Norbert’s Convent
(Victoria Hospital)
Jabalpur, M.P.
Treasurer
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur.
Councillors
Mother Paul, S.M.M.L
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
7 Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
$2 Sister M. Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Medical Mission Hospital
Marikunnu, Calicut.
*7 Mother Felix
Sister of St. Joseph of Cluny
Charitable Dispensary
Tindivanam, S. Arcot, Pondicherry.

President

147

----

cl LV

qJ_|

/ Sv ?

a

1944

>>

5>

i

I

GOVERNING BOARD

Elected
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
First
2 Mother Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Vice President Holy Redeemer Hospital
Theni, Madurai District.
3 Sister Mary Laetitia, S.C.M.M.
Second
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
. Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Secretary
St. Norbert’s Convent
(Victoria Hospital)
Jabalpur, M.P.
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
Treasurer
St. Joseph Hospital
Guntur.
q
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Councillors
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
7 Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
7 Mother Therese, S.M.A.
Lady Willingdon Hospital
Jaipur.
Mother Luke, F.M.M.
Osmania Hospital
Hyderabad, Deccan.
Sister Aloisia, O.S.F.
President

148

1944

1945

1944

1944

1944

1944

1944

J

1945

1945

1945

*.

i

//

r
I

f2

13

Civil Hospital
Jaffna, Ceylon.
Sister Judith, M.S.S.A.
Sr. St. Anne of Providence
Nizan’s State Railway Hospital
Lallaguda, Hyderabad, Deccan.
Sister Margaret Mary, S.C.M.M.
Mitford Hospital
Dacca, East Pakistan.
Sister M. Dolores, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Rawalpindi, West Pakistan
Mother Charles
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Government Headquarters Hospital
Cuddalore

1945

1944

1944

1945

r
■

I

<6>

1

I

i
149

>

!

.... -..ui

GOVERNING BOARD
Elected

r

Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur.
First
Mother Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Vice President Holy Redeemer Hospital
Theni, Madurai District.
Second
3 Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Vice President St. Norbert’s Convent
(Victoria Hospital)
Jabalpur.
’ Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
Treasurer
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Councillors £ Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
4 7 Mother Therese, S.M.A.
Lady Willingdon Hospital
Jaipur
g Mother Luke, F.M.M.
Osmania Hospital
Hyderabad, Deccan.
Sister Aloisia, O.S.F.
Civil Hospital
Jaffna, Ceylon.
/<? Sister Judith, M.S.S.A.
President

)

150

1944

1945

1944

1944

1944

1944

1945

1945

1945

1945

Sisters of St. Anne of Providence
Nizan’s State Railway Hospital
Lallaguda, Hyderabad, Deccan.
// Sister, M. Dolores, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Rawalpindi, West Pakistan.
iZ Mother Charles,
Srs. St. Joseph of Cluny
Government Headquarters Hos­
pital—St. Mary’s Home,
Cuddalore.
I 3 Sister Francis, O.S.F.
Holy Cross Sisters
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Trivandrum.
7i
Sister Bertha, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Nursing Home,
Bimlipatam.

1944

1945

1947

1947

KA

-I

i

1
151

0 2Ao^

> "1

J

i
GOVERNING BOARD

Elected
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
First
Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Vice President St. Norbert’s Convent
and Secretary Jabalpur.
Second
Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Dist., Bihar.
Treasurer
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Councillors
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
Mother Therese, S.M.A.
Mis: ion Hospital
Tha ;dla, M.P.
Mother Luke, F.M.M.
Osmania Hospital
Hyderabad, Deccan.
Sister Aloisia, O.S.F.
Ci\ il Hospital
Jaffna, Ceylon.
Sister Judith, M.S.S.A.
Nizan’s State Railway Hospital
Lallaguda, Hyderabad, Deccan.

President

1944

1944

1948

1944

1944

1944

1945

1945

1945

1945

152

W*- 1
i

-/tn

1
1944
Sister M. Dolores, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Rawalpindi, West Pakistan.
1945
Mother Charles,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Government
Headquarters
Hospital—St. Mary’s Home,
Cuddalore,
1947
Sister Francis, O.S.F.,
Holy Cross Sisters
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Trivandrum.
1948
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
1948
Sister M. Elise, S.C.M.M., M.D.
Holy Family Hospital,
Patna City, Bihar.
1948
Sister M. Cecilia, S.C.M.M.
St. Michael’s Hospital
Mymensingh, Bengal, East Pakistan.
1948
Mother Modesta, F.M.M.
St. Norbert’s Convent,
Jabalpur.

I
I

I

I

153

GOVERNING BOARD

1^1
Elected

President

Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,

1944
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
First
Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
1944
Vice President St. Norbert’s Convent
and Secretary Jabalpur.
Second
1948
Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Distt., Bihar.
1944
Treasurer
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
1944
Councillors
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonan.
1944
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
1945
Mother Therese, S.M.A.
Mission Hospital
Thandla, M.P.
Mother St. Luke, F.M.M.
1945
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Baramulla, Kashmir.
Sister Judith, M.S.S.A.
1945
Srs. of St. Anne of Providence
Nizan’s State Railway Hospital
Lallaguda, Hyderabad.
1944
Sister M. Dolores, S.C.M.M.

154

iW'

o

Holy Family Hospital,
Karachi, West Pakistan.
11 Mother Charles,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital, Chandernagore
Hooghly District, West Bengal.
IZ Sister Francis, O.S.F.
Holy Cross Sisters
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Trivandrum.
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital,
Pondicherry.
Sister M. Elise, S.C.M.M., M.D.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
Mother Modesta, F.M.M.
St. Norbert’s Convent
Jabalpur.
Jo Sister Anne Cornelius, S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.

1945

1947

1948

1948

1948

1949

>

■f

155

I

It-

J

GOVERNING BOARD
Elected

President

III

I
•!

Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
First
2 Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Vice President St. Norbert’s Convent
and Secretary Jabalpur.
Second
3 Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandai P.O., Ranchi Dist., Bihar.
Treasurer
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Councillors
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Bezwada.
Mother Theresa, S.M.A.
Mission Hospital,
Thandla, M.P.
g Mother Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Holy Redeemer Hospital
lheni, Madurai District.
Sister Veronica, M.S.A.
Mission Sisters of Ajmer
Widham State Hospital
Jodhpur.

/

156

f

1944

*

1

1944

1948

1944

1944

1944

1945
-4*
1950

1950

>

i

[0 Sister Appolonie,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Annecy
Orissa Medical College Hospital
Cuttack.
Mother Charles,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital, Chandernagore
Hooghly District, West Bengal.
)2- Sister Francis, O.S.F.,
Holy Cross Sisters
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Trivandrum.
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Clun y
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
Sistei M. Elise, S.C.M.M., M.D.
Holy Family Hospital,
Patna City, Bihar.
Mother Modesta, F.M.M.
St. Norbert’s Convent
Jabalpur.
Z5- Sistei Anne Cornelius, S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.

1950

1945

1947

1948

1948

1948

1949

J

I
157

I
I

I \

1

1

GOVERNING BOARD / 7
President

I

1‘

I. Mothei M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Villa Theresa
66 Tedder Road, Bombay-26.
First
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
Vice President J.M. J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Guntur.
Second
3 Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Dist, Bihar.
Secretary
Sister M. Cyril, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
Treasurer
Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Councillors
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntuj.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Mother St. Luke, F.M.M.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Baramulla, Kashmir
W Sister Veronica M.S.A.
Sophia School
Mt. Abu, Rajsthan.

Elected
Dec. 1,
1951
1944

1948

1951

'!

1951

I
i

1944

1944

1944

1945

1950

158

/ A

A3

I

/1

I

I

I
I
■

Sister Appolonie,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Annecy
Orissa Medical College Hospital
Cuttaek.
Mother. Charles,
/Z Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital, Chandanagore,
Hooghly Distt., West Bengal.
L Sister Francis, O.S.F.
Adam’s Wylie Hospital
Bombay-11.
Iq Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
Mother Pedrick, F,M.M.
Child Jesus Convent
6 Promenade Road, Tiruchirapalli.
Sister Anne Cornelius, S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.

1950

1945

1947

194S

1951

1949

i

ft

t

)

1

1

I
159

J
i

GOVERNING BOARD

Hs'z-

I

President

8
f!

i.

I Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Villa Theresa
66 Pedder Road, Bombay-26.
First
Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
Vice President J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Second
3 Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Dist., Bihar.
Secretary
Sister Cyril, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
Treasurer
o Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Councillors j Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angels’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
H Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Mother M. Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Holy Redeemer Hospital
Theni, Madurai District.
Sister Veronica, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer.
160

Elected
1951

1944

1948

1951

1951

1944

1944

1944

1952

1950

I

II Sister Appolonie
Srs. of St. Joseph of Annecy
Orissa Medical College Hospital
Cuttack.
I; Mother Charles,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital, Chandanagore,
Hooghly Distt., West Bengal.
/J Sister Francis, O.S.F.,
Holy Cross Sisters
Adam’s Wylie Hospital
Bombay-11.
Sister Mane Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
Mother Pedrick, F.M.M.
Child Jesus Convent
6 Promenade Road, Tirunchirapalli
, Sister Anne Cornelius, S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.

161

1950
1:

1945

1947

1948

1951
1949

f

i

4

GOVERNING BOARD

I

i

Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
President t
Villa Theresa
66 Redder Road, Bombay 26.
First
Sister
Mary ol the Sacred Heart
Z
Vice President St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Second
3 Sister Ignatius Marie, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Dt., Bihar.
Sister M. Cyril, S.C.M.M.
Secretary
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar
Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
Treasurer
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Councillors
Mother Paul, S.M.M.I.
Holy Angles’ Dispensary
Kumbakonam.
7 Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Mother M. Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Holy Redeemer Hospital
Theni, Madurai District.
Sister Veronica, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan.

4

1'-

I

162

Elected
1951

1944

1948

1951

1951

1944

1944

1944

1952

1950

Sister Appolonie
Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy
Orissa Medical College Hospital,
Cuttack.
'2 Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Kumbakonam.
• 3 Sister Francis, O.F.S.,
Holy Cross Sisters
Adam’s Wylie Hospital
Bombay-11.
Sister Marie Rose
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital, Karikal.
Mother Pedrick, F.M.M.
Child Jesus Convent
6, Promenade Road, Tiruchirapalli.
Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
i

I

i

163

1950

4
■S

1953

1947

1948

1951

1953

I
s

I

COMMUNITY HEAt.TR CEU
326, V Main, I Block
Korambngala
/
Bangalor0-56OO34 z
India

GOVERNING BOARD

Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Child Jesus Hospital
29 Promenade Road, Tiruchirapalli.
First
7_ Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart,
J.M.J.
Vice President
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Second
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
Sister M. Clare, S.C.M.M.
Secretary
Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi.
Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
Treasurer
St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Guntur.
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
Councillors
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Mother M. Attracta, P.B.V.M.
Presentation Convent
Cathedral P.O., Madras-6.
Mother Veronica, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Kumbakonam, Madras.

President

I

Elected
1951

1944

1954

1954

1951

1

I

1944

I

1944

1952

1

1950

1953

164

■1

3

1
1948
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
1951
AZ-Mother Pedrick, F.M.M.
Child Jesus Hospital
29 Promenade Road, Tiruchirapalli.
1954
Sister Veronica. M.D., J.M.J.
St. Philomena’s Hospital
1 Nilsandra Road, Bangalore-7.
1954
Sister M. Leonie, M.D., S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
1954
Sister Peter Claver, M.D.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Fatima Maternity, Salem.
1954
Mother Raphaelo Scoletta, U.M.J.
Mariampur Hospital
P.O. Shastrinagar, Kanpur, U.P.
1951
Sister M. Cyril, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi.
I Sister M. Barbara, M.D., S.C.M.M. 1954
Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Distt., Bihar.

1

■<

165

F

IiI

GOVERNING BOARD
i

i

I

I

President

I Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M.

Child Jesus Hospital
29 Promenade Road, Tiruchirapalli.
First
Sister Mary of the Sacied Heart,
Vice Presiden t J. M. J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
3 Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Second
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
l|
Sister Mary Daniel, C.R.S.M.
Secretary
Mater Misericordiae Convent
Jamshedpur, Bihar.
Treasurer 5 Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Mother Angelina, J.M.J.
Councillors
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Santhpet, Nellore, A.P.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Mother M. Aliracta, P.B.V.M.
Presentation Convent
Cathedral P.O., Madras-6.
Sister Veronica, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Kumbakonam, Madras.

Elected
1944

1944

1954

1955

1951

1944
I

1944

1952

4
i

t
■

1950

1953

r

166

4

1948
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Colonial Hospital
Pondicherry.
1951
Mother Pedrick, F.M.M.
Child Jesus Hospital
Tiruchirapalli.
1954
Sister Veronica, M.D., J.M.J.
St. Philomena’s Hospital
Bangaloie-7.
1954
Sister M. Leonie, M.D., S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital,
Patna City, Bihar.
1954
‘ 5 Sister Peter Claver,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
Fatima Maternity, Salem.
1951
Sister M. Cyril, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi.
M. Barbara, M.D., S.C.M.M. 1954
1 7 Sister
Holy Family Hospital
Mandar P.O., Ranchi Distt., Bihar.

*
i

167

( \

I
■

J

GOVERNING BOARD

II

I

168

I

•

r r

17^

Mother M. Kinesburge F.M.M.
Child Jesus Hospital
29 Promenade Road
Tiruchirapalli.
First
2.Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
Second
Sister M. Clare, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi.
Secretary
Sister M. Daniel, C.R.S.M.
Ardeshir Dalal Memorial Hospital
Golmuri P.O., Jamshedpur, Bihar.
Treasurer
Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Board Members Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heait Leprosy Hospital
Sakkottai P.O., Kumbakonam
Madras.
Sister Marie Rose,
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital,
Karikal, Pondicherry.
Sister M. Veronica. M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer
Rajasthan.
Sister M. Leonie, S.C.C.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City
Bihar.

President

I •

Elected
1951

1956

1956

1955

1951

1956

1956

1956

1956

i

i

GOVERNING BOARD

Sister Mary Peter, C.R.S.M.
Mater Misericordiae Convent
Golmuri P.O., Jamshedpur, Bihar.
First
2 Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh Jn., Bihar.
2 Sister Clare, S.C.M.M.
Second
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi.
Sister Mary Daniel, C.R.S.M.
Secretary
Mater Misericordiae Convent
Jamshedpur, Bihar.
Treasurer
Sister Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi
Board Members Sister Veronica, M.S.A.
Mirshali, Ajmer.
Sister Leonie, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Patna City, Bihar.
Sister Marie Rose,
Srs. of St. Joseph of Cluny
General Hospital
Karikal, Pondicherry.
Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Sakkottai P.O.
Kumbakonum, Madras.

President

1

7

169

-r

fe?- -■

. .k

-

I

1757
Elected
1957

I

i

1956

t

1956

I
1955

1957

4

:■

1956
1956

1956

1956

s

A

I
GOVERNING BOARD
President

Sister Mary Peter, C.R.S.M.
Ardeshir Dalal Memorial Hospital
Golmuri P.O.
Jamshedpur, Bihar.
First
2- Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
Second
3 Sister Mary Clare, S.C.M.M.
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
Jamia Nagar P.O., New Delhi.
Secretary
L| Sister Mary Daniel, C.R.S.M.
Ardeshir Dalal Memorial Hospital
Jamshedpur, Bihar.
Treasurer
Sister Mary Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Jamia Nagar P.O., New Delhi.
Board Members Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Sakkottai P.O.,, Madras.
Sister Mary Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Anne’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Sister Mary Xavier, S.C.M.M.
Immaculate Heart of Mary Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala.

Elected

1957

1956

1956

1

1955

1957

1953

1958

1958

1958

I
170

GOVERNING BOARD / 7

51Elected

Sister Mary Peter, C.R.S.M.
Ardeshir Dalal Memorial Hospital
Golmuri P.O.
Jamshedpur
Bihar.
First
Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar.
/ Sister M. Clare, S.C.M.M.
Second
Vice President Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi.
Sister Daniel, C.R.S.M.
Secretary
Ardeshir Dalal Memorial Hospital
Golmuri P.O.
Jamshedpur, Bihar.
Sister M. Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Treasurer
Holy Family Hospital
b New Delhi.
Board Members Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.
Sacred Heart Leprosy Hospital
Sakkottai P.O., Kumbakonam
Madras.
Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur.
0
<^/ Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Ann’s Hospital
Vijayawada.
Sister Mary Xavier, S.C.M.M.
Immaculate Heart of Mary Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala.

President

f

1957

1956

1956

1955
■;

!•
1957

1956

1958

1958

1958

171

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1

GOVERNING BOARD
: 5

Sister Mary Ancilla, J.M.J
President
St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur
Andhra Pradesh
First
Sister Crescentia, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh Junction, Bihar
Second
3 Sister Rosemary S.A.S.
Vice President St. Ann’s Hospital
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
Sister Marie Rose, S.S.J. Cluny
Secretary
Government Hospital
Karikal, Madras State
Sister Mary Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Treasurer
Holy Family Hospital
New Delhi-20
b Sister Hyacinth
Board Members
Lisie Hospital
Ernakulam, Kerala
Sister Colette, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan
% Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Ann’s Hospital
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
Sister Mary Xavier, S.C.M.M.
I.H.M. Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala

172

Elected
1960

1956

1961

I960

1960

1960

1959

1958

1958

41

GOVERNING BOARD

I

^6

Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
First
Sister Xavier, S.C.M.M.
Vice President I.H.M. Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala
Sister Rosemary
Second
Vice President St. Ann’s Hospital
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
Secretary
Sister Marie Rose
Government Hospital
Karikal
Treasurer
. Sister Mary Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Holy Family Hospital
Okhla Road, Jamia Nagar P.O.
New Delhi
Board Members Sister Elizabeth, S.A.S.
St. Ann’s Hospital
•Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
Sister Colette, M.S.A.
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan
Sister Hyacinth M S.J.
Lisje Hospital
Ernakulam North, Kerala
Dr. Martha Wiss, M.D., S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh Jn., Bihar

President

7

I
1960

1961

1961

1960

1960

1958

1959

1960

1961

173

1

GOVERNING BOARD

President

Sister Ancilla, J.M.J.
St. Joseph’s Hospital,
Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
First
Sister Xavier, S.C.M.M.
Vice President I.H.M. Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala.
Second
Sister Rosemary, S.A.S.
Vice President St. Ann’s Hospital,
Vijayawada, A.P.
Sister Marie Rose,
Secretary
Convent St. Joseph of Cluny
Pondicherry.
St. Mary Caroline, S.C.M.M.
Treasurer
Holy Family Hospital,
Okhla Road, Jamianagar P.O.,
New Delhi.
Board Members Rev. Dr. J. Van Schijndel,
O. Praem, M.D.
Katra Hospital, Katra,
Ma nd la District, Madhya Pradesh.
Dr. Margaret Hegemann, M.D.,
Jubilee Mission Hospital,
Trichur, Kerala.
Sr. Dr. Giovanna, M.D.
Mariampur Hospital
Shasti inagar, Kanpur, U. P.
Dr. Martha Wiss, M.D., S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh Jn., Bihar.

7

Elected
1960

1961

1961

I960

1960

1962

1962

1962

1961

174

(\

GOVERNING BOARD
Elected
Sister Rosemary, S.A.S.
1963
St. Ann’s Hospital
Vijayawada, A.P.
First
Sister Xavier S.C.M.M.
1961
Vice President I.H.M. Hospital
Bharananganam, Kerala
Vice President Sister Florence Joseph, S.C.N.
1963
Nazareth Hospital, Mokameh, Bihar
Secretary
Sister Colette, M.S.A.
1963
St. Francis Hospital
Ajmer, Rajasthan
Treasurer
Sister Michelle, S.C.M.M.
1963
Holy Family Hospital
C New Delhi
Board Members Rev. J. Van Schijndel M.D.,
O. Praem.
1962
Katra Hospital
Katra, Mandla Dt., M.P.
7 Dr. Margaret, Hegemann, M.D.
1962
Mission Hospital
Trichur Kerala,
Sr. Dr. Martha Wiss, M.D., F.A.C.S.
S.C.N.
1961
Nazaieth Hospital
Mokameh, Bihar
Sr. Dr. Giovanna, M.B., B.S.
1962
Mariampur Hospital
Shastrinagar P.O.
Kanpur U.P.

President

-

175

1

m7
■

GOVERNING BOARD

Sister Rosemary, S.A.S.
St. Ann’s Hospital,
Vijayawada, A.P.
First
Dr. Louis Monteiro, M.D.
Vice President St. John’s Medical College,
St. Mary’s Town,
Bangalore 5.
Sr. Dr. Martha Wiss, M.D.,
Second
Vice President F.A.C.S., S.C.N.
Nazareth Hospital,
Mokameh, Bihar.
Sister Colette, M.S.A.,
Secretary
Sophia Higher Secondary School
Ajmer, Rajasthan.
St7. Michelle, S.C.M.M.,
Treasurer,
Kurji Holy Family Hospital,
Sadaquat Ashram P.O.,
Patna.
Board Members Rev. J. Van Schijndel, M.D.,
O. Praem,
Katra Hospital,
Mandla Dt. M.P.
Sr. Dr. Giovanna, M.B.B.S.,
Mariampur Hospital,
Kanpur, U.P.
/ Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.,
Mercy Home
14 Hall’s Road,
Kilpauk, Madras-10.
Rev. Anthony Parackal,
Lisie Hospital,
Ernakulam 8, Kerala.

President

I

■ ■ '
J

Elected
1963

1964

1964

1963

1963

1962

1962

1964

1964

176

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GOVERNING BOARD

u
Elected

1

President

Sr. Rosemary, S.A.S.
St. Ann’s Hospital,
Vijayawada, A.P.
First
Dr. Louis Monteiro, M.D.,
Vice President Si. John’s Medical College,
St. Mary’s Town, Bangalore-5.
Second
Sr. Florence Joseph, S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital,
Mokameh P.O, Bihar,
Secretary
Sr. Collette, M.S.A,
Sophia Higher Secondary School,
Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Treasurer
Sr. M. Michelle, S.C.M.M.
Kurji Holy Family Hospital,
P.O. Sadaquat Ashram,
Patna, Bihar.
Board Members Rev. Anthony Parackal,
Lisle Hospital,
Einakulam-8, Kerala.
7 Sr. Caroline, S.C.M.M.,
Medical Mission Sisters,
Bi be wadi, Poona-2,
. Mother Raphael, S.M.M.I.,
Prudhomme Vidhuti Mercy Home,
14. Halls Road,
Kilpauk, Madras-10.
/ S . Theophile,
S'.. Philomena’s Hospital,
1. Nilsandra Road, Bangalore.
177

1963
1964

1964

1963

1963

1964

1965

1964

1965

I

GOVERNING BOARD

1

Elected
1966

Dr. Stella, M.D., C.S.N.
Stella Maris Hospital
P.O. Paduapuram
via Angalmaly, Kerala.
First
Dr. Louis Monteiro, Dean,
Vice President St. John’s Medical College
St. Mary’s Town
Bangalore 5, Mysore.
Second
Sister Florence Joseph, R.N., S.C.N.
Vice President Nazareth Hospital
Mokameh Junction, Bihar.
Sister Mary Ignatius, R.N., R.G.S.
Secretary
St. Martha’s Hospital
Bangalore City, Mysore
Dr. Teresita Nariculam, M.B.B.S.,
Treasurer
S.M.I.
Mary Immaculate Dispensary
Chapra, Bangaljhi P.O.
Nadia Dist., West Bengal.
Board Members Mother Raphael, R.N., S.M.M.I.
Mercy Home
14 Halls Road, Kilpauk, Madras-10.
"7 Sister Theophile. R.N., J.M.J.
St. Philomena’s Hospital
1 Nilsandra Road
Bangalore-7, Mysore
Sister M. Caroline, R.N., S.C.M.M.
Medical Mission Sisters
Bibewadi, Poona-9.
Very Rev. Msgr. Antony Parakal
Lisie Hospital
Ernakulam-8, Kerala.
President

1

1964

1964

1966

1966

1964

1965

1965

I
1965

178
I

<

GOVERNING BOARD Elected
1966

Dr. Stella, M.D., C.S.N.
Stella Maris Hospital
P.O. Paduapuram, Kerala.
First
Dr. Louis Monteiro, Dean,
Vice President St.John’s Medical College
Bangalore 5, Mysore
3 Dr. Daisy Kulanday, M.B.B.S.
Second
Vice President 3 Sadhana Colony
Malavayanagar, New Delhi-17.
Sister Mary, Ignatius, R.N., R.G.S.
Secretary
St. Martha’s Hospital
Bangalore City, Mysore
Dr. Teresita Nariculam, M.B.B.S.,
Treasurer
S.M.I.
Mary Immaculate Dispensary
Chapra, Bangaljhi P.O.
Nadia Dist., West Bengal.
Board Members Sister M. Carmela, R.N., S.C.M.M.
Kurji Holy Family Hospital
Sadaquat Ashram P.O.
Patna, Bihar.
2_ Sister Theophile, R. N., J.M.J.
St. Philomena’s Hospital
1 Nilsandra Road
Bangalore, Mysore.
S Dr. Bridget Mary, M.B.B.S., I.H.M.
St. Mary’s Hospital
Attipakam P.O.,
Dist. South Arcot, Madras
Very Rev. Msgr. Antony Parakal
Lisie Hospital
Ernakulam-8, Kerala.

President

r
I

4
I

1967

jk-V

1967

1966

1966

1967

1965

1965

1965

179

M

(>

Rev. James S. Tong, S.J.
Catholic Hospital Association
C.B.C.T. Centre, Alexandra Place
New Delhi-1.
Eccelesiastical Most Rev. Dominic Athaide,
O.F.M. Cap.
Advisers
Cathedral House
Wazirpura Road
Agra, U.P.
Most Rev. Joseph Attipetty, D.D.
Latin Archbishop’s House
Ernakulam, Kerala.
Rt. Rev. Ambrose P. Yeddanpally, D.D.
Bishop’s House
Bellary, Mysore.
Mother Kinesburge, F.M.M.
Honorary
Member
Child Jesus Hospital
Promenade Road
Tiruchirapalli,
Madi as State.

Executive
Director

180

1

< ’

ST. JOHN S MEDICAL COLLEGE, BANGALORE

Students—Religious Sisters—By Congregations as on 1st
September, 1967

No.

SO

c*-j

»

Total
- No.

Admissions in

Congregation.

1. Society of Jesus, Mary and
(J.M.J.) Guntur,
Joseph
Andhra.
2. Sisters of St. Joseph Chambery
(S.S.J.) Pachmarhi, Maharashtra
3. Society of the Catholic Medical
Missionaries. (S.C.M.M.)
Kerala
4. Salesian Missionaries of Mary
Immaculate (S.M.M..-1)
Kengeri, Mysore
5. Bethany Congregation, Man­
galore, Mysore.
6. Medical Sisters of St. Joseph
(M.S.J.) Kothamangalam,
Kerala.
7. Sisters of St. Anne (Switzer­
land) (S.A.S.) Vijayawada.
Andhra.
8. Teaching Sisters of the Holy
Cross, Menzingen (O.S.F.)
Kotiyam, Kerala.
9. Sisters of Mercy of the Holy
Cross (Ingenbohl) (S.C.S.C.)
Hazaribagh, Bihar.
10. Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes,
Bangalore, Mysore
181

o

S

of

Srs.

O\

O\

1

1

2

1

1

2

1

1

O'.

3

1

2

1

1

1

I

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

3

-

2

1

1

1

1

•

'■*.

-

I,
)

11. Sisters of the Cross Chavanod
(Haut Savoie) Holy Cross
Sisters, Tiruchirapalli,
Madras.
— —
12. Congregation of Our Lady of
Charity of the Good Shepherd
(R.G.S.) Bangalore, Mysore. — —
13. Dames of St. Charles Borromeo
(S.C.B.) Bangalore Mysore.
— —
14. Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
(S.C.N.) Mokameh, Bihar.
— —
15. Franciscan Missionaries pf
Mary (F.M.M.) Madras.
— —
16. Sisters of Charity of the Saints
Bartholmea and Vincenza,
Mangalore, Mysore.
— —
17. Society of the Presentation of
Blessed Virgin Mary (P.B.
V.M.) Madras.
— —
18. Mission Sisters of Ajmer (M.
S.A.) Ajmer, Rajasthan.
— —
19. Missionary Sisters of the Im­
maculate Heart of Mary
(C.l,M.)Palyamkottai, Madras.— —
20. Congregation of the Immacu­
late Heart of Mary,
Pondicherry.
— —
21. Franciscan Servants of Mary
(F.S.M.) Salem,
Madras.
22. Franciscan Sisters of St.
Joseph, Madras.
23. Daughters of the Cross of Liege
(F.C.) Bombay.
24. Daughters of Charity of Can­
ossa (F.D.C.C.)
Bombay.
Total:

7

7

2

2

1

1

1

1

2

2

7

2

2

2

2

1

1

7

1

1

1

i

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

8

36

4

182

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

f

The Catholic Hospital Association Office files:

Minute Book of the Association
Minute Book of the Council Meetings
Minute Book of The Catholic Medical College Committee

Membership Lists
Correspondence
Convention Reports
The Directors Reports
Histories and questionnaires from Catholic Hospitals
“A Short History of the Catholic Hospitals Association of
jndia”—by Mother M. Kinesburge, F.M.M. 1961
Legal Documents of the Association
Documents-St. Joseph’s Hospital, Guntur

Booklet I “A Proposed Catholic Hospitals Association”^
Booklet II “The Proposed Catholic Hospitals Association
Excerpts from the Autobiography of Sister Mary of the Sacred
Heart
Documents—St. Ann’s Hospital, Vijayawada
Correspondence
Publications

.4
'■

I •

April 1944 to June 1957
“The Catholic Hospital”
July
1957 to June 1968
“Medical Service”
October
1934
“Rays of Light”, Catholic
Truth Society, Trichinopoly,
September 1943
August
15, 1943
^The Herald” Calcutta
August
7,
1943
“The Examiner” Bombay
U.S.A.,
Vol;.,
I, 1927
“The Medical Missionary”,
to Vol. XVII, 1943
1879, 1904
Madras Catholic Directory
1912,
1939,
1950, 1964
Catholic Directory of India

183

1

1

w

v

COMMUhl

II

' i m'liiMh,

J | HEALTH CEU

326. V rJ i ; II Block
Koramang
Bangalorl

510034

Books

Mdia I I H

“Australian Medical Nun is India"
by Ursula Clinton, B.A., Melbourne 1967
“The First Blade"
by Mother M. Colmcille, I.B.V.M., Calcutta 1968
“Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters"
by T. J. Walsh, M.A., Dublin—M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. 1959
“Valient Woman"—Mother Mary of the Passion and the
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary by—George Goyan —
London Sheed and Ward 1947
“The Century of An Institute^'—Sisters of Charity of SS. Cap.
& Ger.—Codilbail Press, Mangalore 1958
“India and Its Missions''—The Capuchin Mission Unit,
Cumberland, Maryland—Sands and Co., London', Macmillan
1923

■

I

I

I
I

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India

Report on The Catholic Medical Conference of India
•Most Rev. L. Mathias S.D.B. December 1954
The Catholic Medical College and Hospital
Most Rev. L. Mathias, S.D.B. March 1959
Circular No, 2/59 ‘Catholic Medical College' April 14, 1959
St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, Mysore
The Planning Committee, July 1960
St. John's Medical College publications

Prospectus 1968-69
The Project of St. John s Medical College, July 17, 1968
||

184

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