Matters India reporter
Kolkata — The head of the Dauguters of Mary Help of Christians popularly known as Salesian Sisters on a ten day visit to Kolkata region is schedued to meet with the monks of Ramakrishna Math.
The Hindu monastic order with nearly 1,500 monks spread over 183 branches are in some 130 centres all over India and in different parts of the world.
French national Mother Yvonne Reungoat, 9th successor of St Domenica Maria Mazzarello foundress of Salesian Sisters, will make her first ever visit to a Hindu monastic order on January 27 to the Ramakrishna Mission World Headquarters at Belur on the northern outskirts of Kolkata.
Mother General will visit Belur Math along with her two General Council members including Mission Councillor Sr. Alaide Deretti, and Councillor for Youth Ministry Sr. Runita Galve Borja; Visiting Councillors Sr. Phyllis Neves and Sr Lucy Rose along with provincial of Kolkata Sr. Rose Ezarath and Economer Sr. Annie Thevarkunnel.
Some 30 plus Sisters will accompany Mother Reungoat on her pilgrimage to St Mother Teresa’s tomb and Belur Math.
The seven member delgation of Salesian Sisters will be received by senior monks of Ramakrishna Mission.
“It will be the very first meeting of a superior general of any Catholic female religious order to the Hindu monastery,” said Shyamal Baran Roy, journalist and former President of Calcutta Press Club and Salesian alumnus who scheduled the meet.
“These moments of pilgrimage and communion are both for me and my sisters, a call for deeper spirituality,” says Mother Reungoat who eagerly looks forward to the meeting with Hindu monks.
The Belur Math meeting will be preceeded by a visit to the Tomb of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and meeting with her successor Sr Prema of Missionaries of Charity Sisters at the Mother House on 54A Lower Circular Road.
Ramakrishna Mission is a monastic organization for men started by Sri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), the great 19th century saint of Bengal. The mission aims at the harmony of religions, East and the West, ancient and modern. It also strives for spiritual fulfillment, all-round development of human faculties, social equality, and peace for all humanity, without any distinctions of creed, caste, race or nationality.
The Salesian Sisters, the largest female religious order in the Catholic Church, number some 15,000 Sisters and are present in some 130 countries working for young people especially the poor and marginalized girls and women. In India, the Salesian Sisters number some 2,000 members spread out in eight provinces