Panaji: It operates from a 388-year-old building, but there is nothing ancient about what it has done to Catholic nuns in India.
For the past 50 years, the Institute of Mater Dei (Mother of God) has been instilling in India’s Catholic women religious a sense of worth and dignity by bringing theological studies at their reach.
The institute will celebrate the golden jubilee on January 5.
The institute set up inside the St Monica Convent in Old Goa has been reorienting how these committed women religious worked in the Church and society.
The building for the institute was built during 1606-1627. The institute is the only theological center administered by the women’s wing of the Conference of Religious of India, the national association of major superiors. The convent and church of St. Monica is a 3-story building.
Institute Mater Dei was launched in 1964, toward the end of the Vatican Second Council. It was an answer to a felt among women religious to bring about the much-needed renewal in religious life as the council envisage. The institute aims to make religious life meaningful and relevant in the Church.
This institute has a history of cross-cultural encounter, the first of which was between Portugal and India. St Monica Convent was built by the Portuguese to house religious women in Goa, their colony.
Ever since 1964, Mater Dei Institute has given theological formation and training to more than 6,000 women religious from India and the neighboring Asian countries.
They impart their knowledge to others by an attitude of intense commitment, aiming at social transformation also establishing relationships, thus become women who dare and involve into the lives of others. This is what history of Mater Dei reveals to us.
As the number increased over the years, the students of Theology reaches out to the marginalized and underprivileged through service.
Mater Dei now has 126 students from India, belonging to 55 Congregations, and one from abroad. As many as 83 sisters have enrolled for one year certificate course in theology, 25 sisters for the Formators course and six sisters and one young woman for one year philosophy course.
Said to be the oldest nunnery in Asia, the edifice echoes the glory of any 15th century Portuguese castle. It started with a few inmates and assumed great importance with the passage of time.
It was used as a barracks during the1950’s and 1960’s and then reinstated as a church in 1968. The gardens provided not only food for the nuns but also fragrant flowers for religious ceremonies.
It used to house around 150 cloistered nuns who were called the daughters of St. Monica.
It was regarded as the Royal Monastery because of its royal patronage. When the religious orders were suppressed in Goa, all the religious in the Convent returned to their own countries.
Yet it didn’t shut down until 1885 when the last sister died. She is believed to have received the grace of Stigmata. A painting of Dona Maria de Corm, the stigmatist, is found in the chapel
The Museum of Christian Art is just adjacent and contains a collection of icons and artifacts used in rituals in religious ceremonies. Most of the sculptures and paintings were actually done by local Hindu artists.
The Church of St. Monica beautifully portrays an impeccable blend of Tuscan-Corinthian and Composite exteriors, with an elegant Doric and Composite work on its inner frame.