Kolkata: Sister Nirmala Joshi, the first successor of Blessed Mother Teresa, died Tuesday. She was 81.

She was suffering from heart disease for a long time. For the past few days she suffered from kidney failure and other complications. Doctors advised her for dialysis on Friday, but she wanted to be with her sisters the last hours, a source close to the Missionaries of Charity told Matters India on Tuesday.

A Jesuit priest offered Mass for her on Friday at the hospital and then she was discharged. Since then she was slowly sinking.

She died after 12 midnight on Monday.

The funeral is tentatively scheduled for 4 pm on Wednesday.

The body will be at St.John’s during the day on Tuesday and at night it would be brought to their house in Tengra, a Kolkata suburb. On Wednesday, the body would be kept in the congregation’s Mother House where the funeral would be held.

Sister Nirmala, as she was known, became the superior general of Missionaries of Charity in March 1997, just six months before the death of its world renowned founder.

Sister Nirmala with Mother Teresa

Sister Nirmala was born in 1934 in Ranchi, then part of the Bihar and Orissa Province in the British Indian Empire and now the capital of Jharkhand state.

Her parents were from Nepal and her father was an officer of the British Army until the nation’s independence in 1947. Although the family was Hindu, she was educated by Christian missionaries in Patna, capital of Bihar state.

At that time she learned of Mother Teresa’s work and wanted to share in that service. She soon became a Catholic and joined the Missionaries of Charit.

Sister Nirmala had a Master’s degree in Political Science and additional training as a lawyer. She was one of the first Sisters of the congregation to head a foreign mission when she went to Panama.

In 1976, Joshi started the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity and remained at its head until her election as Mother Teresa’s first successor.

The Indian government awarded her the Padma Vibhushan (lotus endowed), the second highest civilian award, on Republic Day (January 26) 2009 for her services to the nation.

Her term as superior general ended on March 25, 2009, and she was succeeded by German-born Sister Mary Prema Pierick, who continues to head the congregation.