By Jessy Joseph
New Delhi, July 2, 2020: A Catholic nun has died of Covid-19 in India.
Sister Ajaya Mary, a provincial of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died on July 2 in the Holy Family Hospital at Okhla, South Delhi. She was 67.
“She was suffering from acute pneumonia since February. She had undertaken a lot of travel in that month,” Sister Judy, one of the nuns in the provincial house in Najafgarh, west Delhi, told Matters India.
Sister Ajaya was tested positive on June 22 and was admitted on the same day in the Holy Family Hospital, which is managed by the Archdiocese of Delhi.
Sister Judy said Sister Ajaya’s body was cremated at 12 noon on July 2 by the government agencies, following the norms for burying Covid 19 patients.
Sister Selfi Mary, a general councilor of the congregation, said Sister Ajaya’s ashes will be taken to Kollam (formerly Quilon) later to bury in the cemetery there.
Kollam, an ancient town in Kerala, southern India, is the headquarters of the indigenous congregation .
Sister Ajaya had served Nirmala English Higher Secondary School at Korba in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh from 1998 to 2016. She became the provincial superior of Najafgarh in 2018.
“The congregation has lost an able administrator and a true missionary,” Sister Selfi Mary told Matters India.
She said five nuns of the convent where the provincial stayed have been quarantined from June 22.
Sister Judy, one of provincial’s companions, recalled that Sister Ajaya was “an ardent devotee” of Child Jesus. “She used to say ‘My Little Jesus, I love you’ several times in a day,” she recalled.
Sister Judy, who is the vocation promoter, also narrated an incident where Sister Ajaya blessing some children while travelling in a train a few years back.
“She laid her hands on them and asked them to keep on saying ‘my Little Jesus, I love you. A Hindu man was watching her and he asked her to pray over him to get a promotion. The nun told him to keep on saying ‘my Little Jesus, I love you.’ A few months later the man came to thank her for the favor he received through Little Jesus.
Sister Ajaya’s death was mourned by others too.
“I am so sad to hear the demise of Sister Ajaya Mary. She was very approachable, passionate and cheerful person. I have lost a good friend,” said Sacred Heart Sister Celine George Kannattu, a social worker in New Delhi.
Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew wrote in social media, “I had been invited to preach a weeklong retreat for them in March. She had a pleasant, loving and motherly attitude towards her sisters.”