Kolkata: Thousands of people, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Wednesday braved rains to pay last respects to Mother Teresa’s successor. Sister Nirmala died the previous day after a prolonged illness.
Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, led the funeral services at the headquarters of Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta and Bishop Salvatore Lobo of Baruipur assisted the cardinal along with 60 priests.
After morning Mass, Sister Nirmala’s body was taken from Sealdah’s St John’s Church, where it was kept the entire night, and to the headquarters known as Mother House.
Priests of various Christian denominations and representatives from Missionaries of Charity in various states and abroad arrived in the eastern city to attend the funeral.
Mamata Banerjee who described Sister Nirmala’s death as an “irreparable loss,” attended the funeral Mass held at the Mother House at around 4 pm.
Jesuit Irudaya Jothi, director of a social service center and a close associate of Sister Nirmala, said the mourners were not that large as those who had come for Mother Teresa’s funeral in 1997. “Not such a big one but very unique,” he told Matters India.
A giant screen was kept on the main road near the headquarters to help thousands who could not get inside the Mother House to join the services.
Fr Jothi said the chief minister was present all through the Mass with Mayor Sovan Mukabadhay and City Police commissioner.
The chief minister walked along with the people and the body of Sr. Nirmala after the Mass and left just before entering Sealdah
“That was a good motherly act,” the Jesuit priest said. “She was with us for nearly three hours, participating in the Eucharist for two full hours in great attention and reverence. That was wonderful.”
Missionaries of Charity (MC) sources told Matters India that Sr Nirmala died peacefully at 12.05 am June 23 surrounded by her family, her brother Surendra Prasad Joshi from Nepal, her sister Marie Terese, an Apostolic Carmel nun. MC sources said Sister Nirmala died of heart and kidney failure.
Cutting across class and religious barriers, a steady stream of visitors trickled in since 10 a.m. in rain to negotiate the narrow entrance to the building.
Placed in a glass casket with candles and wreaths near her feet, sister Nirmala’s body was kept beside Mother Teresa’s marble tomb. Close to 250 people, including the nuns, gathered around in the airy room to “celebrate her legacy.” Several clicked photos and joined in singing hymns, amid tight security.
In the backdrop of hymns of ‘Maria Tujhe Pranam’ softly echoing across the room, Mohammed Parwez , a physically-challenged man, kissed the glass casket and bowed before Mother’s tomb.
The numbers of visitors included Army officers, office-goers and Muslim clerics. Missionaries of Charity volunteers brought infants of the Sishu Bhavan (children’s home) who touched Sister Nirmala’s glass casket and Mother’s tomb.
Ringed by backpackers and volunteers from countries such as Spain and the US, well-known citizens like singer Usha Uthup silently offered their last respects before her funeral at St. John’s Church in the evening.
With prayers and flowers Sr. Nirmala was interred amid messages from adjacent Sealdah railway station announcing train arrivals and departures.
Sister Nirmala was elected the superior general of the Missionaries of Charity on March 13, 1997, six months before Mother Teresa’s death.
Twelve years later, the congregation elected Mary Prema, a German, to succeed Sister Nirmala during a general chapter held in Calcutta.
Sister Nirmala became the second head of the order after its founder Mother Teresa stepped down from the post in March 1997. The Nobel laureate, who died on September 5 the same year, was in 2003 beatified as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
During her 12-year stewardship of the order founded in 1950, Sister Nirmala visited a large number of countries, opening new houses and drawing more people to the Missionaries of Charity, which now has under its fold over 4,500 religious sisters and activities spread across 133 countries.
Born Kusum Joshi in Ranchi to a Brahmin family from Nepal in 1934, sister Nirmala joined the order after converting to Christianity in 1958.
An MA in political science and a trained lawyer, Sister Nirmala started the congregation’s contemplative branch in 1976 and headed it till her election as the order’s superior general. She was elected for a second term in 2003.
Sister Nirmala was re-elected for a third term on March 13, 2009, but the congregation held a second election days later after she wanted to be relieved of the responsibility owing to ill-health and also expressed a desire to return to the contemplative life she led before heading the order.
She was honored with India’s second highest civilian order Padma Vibhushan (lotus decorated) in 2009 for her services to the nation.
Archbishop Thomas D’Souza in his homily said, “Many people transform the lives of others -eg Jesus and in our time -MT . Sister Nirmala, he added, can be rightly described as an active contemplative- radiating Jesus Christ, radiating charity, holiness of life the result of prayer adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, devotion to Mother Mary, fidelity to the MCs and deep union with God.He said “-Just as MT blest Sr. Nirmala and as she was a blessing to all so we must be a blessing to others.
MC Superior General Mary Prema (Pierick) told those around the altar that Sr. Nirmala welcomed everyone as a brother or a sister with outstanding charism to bring souls to God and God to souls
As introduction to the Mass MC Sister Nicoline narrated how Sister Nirmala sent them to nursery school to learn how to be like little ones. She said she was small in size but a pillar of strength , kind and gentle soul, child-like and full of wonder with a listening heart that drew so many to her for advice and blessings.
She said that in times of natural and manmade calamities Sr. Nirmala went to oversee MC sisters relief work, comforting the injured, grieving, displaced and suffering bringing hope and courage.
She went to Orissa at the time of the super cyclone, to Malda submerged by floods, to the West Indies ravaged by a hurricane, to Gujarat struck by an earthquake, to South India, Andamans and Sri Lanka devastated by the tsunami,to Sierra Leone torn by civil war and Orissa suffering from communal violence. She said sister was a ‘ caring didi’ and a second mother to her.
MC Brother Raju said Sr. Nirmala was a soul after MT’s own. MC Brother Augustine who was among the crowds that followed the white coffin to St. John’s church cemetery adjacent to where sister had breathed her last and spent the last years of her life- said Sr. Nirmala was very motherly and easily approachable liked by all the brothers and sisters exemplary in her humility. In spite of her illnes she refused dialysis he said unlike others who run to the doctor for just a headache.
Chandra Kumar Ghimire, Consul General of Nepal, told Matters India-that Sr. Nirmala was a great humanist and that her going back home to God is an irreparable loss.the entire Nepali society he added is in grief and all knew of her work as an MC.
Sr. Marie Therese, Apostolic Carmel, and one of Sister Nirmala’s seven sisters called Sr. Nirmala -very committed-
Retired Professor Arundhati Ray (Loreto College, Kolkata) said she was touched by the fact that Sr. Nirmala would remember her name and in spite of her enormous responsibility.
“She was tiny but a towering personality helping Mother Teresa as a huge pillar of strength and must be credited with much of the work of in the last years. I had heard Sr. Prema saying she did not know what they would do without Nirmala’s spirit of love and ultimate humility.”