By Jessy Joseph

New Delhi, July 28, 2020: Sister Nichole, a member of Missionaries of Charity, died on Ranchi on July 27. She was 61.

Sister Nichole, who developed mild headache and sleeplessness, was tested positive and admitted in the Constant Lievens Hospital and Research Centre.

“The nun had been in the forefront to distribute food packets to the poor during the lockdown,” Missionaries of Charity Sister Sebastino, the former regional superior of Ranchi region, told Matters India on July 28.

Sister Nichole hails from St Antony’s Parish village in Kerala’s Trivandrum Latin archdiocese. She was the first religious nun from the parish.

Her funeral was held on July 27 at the congregation’s burial place in Doranda, near Ranchi, capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The nuns in Doranda convent are now under quarantine.

Sr Nicole was the former superior of Nirmal Hriday (Immaculate Heart), Kalighat, Kolkata, Mother Teresa’s first house. She took charge as the regional superior of Ranchi in February.

Just before taking up her new post Sister Nichole had visited her relatives in Kochuthura. The Missionaries of Charity nuns are allowed to visit their homes once in ten years.

Missionaries of Charity Sister Alphonsina, vocation recruiter of Sister Nicole, recalls that her candidate wanted to serve the poorest of the poor from the very young age. She joined the congregation soon after her 10th grade.

Sister Alphonsina, superior of the Missionaries of Charity convent in Seemapuri, an East Delhi suburb, had taught Sister Nicole in the Sunday school in Kochuthura. “I am deeply saddened by the departure of a pious nun. We have lost a great missionary,” she told Matters India.

Sister Nichole’s native parish on July 28 organized a memorial Mass.

She is the third Missionaries of Charity nun and the Indian woman religious to die of Covid-19. Others are:
1. Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Ajaya Mary on July 2
2. Maria Bambina Sister Michael Serrao in Dibrugarh, Assam, on July 16
3. Maria Bambina Sister Florence Kurisinkal in Dibrugarh, Assam, on July 21
4. Missionaries of Charity Sister Mukta in West Bengal on June 7
5. Missionaries of Charity Sister Sienna from Jharkhand’s Gumla diocese, who died in Swansea, Wales, on April 1