By Ranjita Minj

Ranchi, July 24, 2020: On July 26, the Daughters of St. Anne (DSA), the first indigenous women congregation in Jharkhand, will mark its 124th foundation day.

The trailblazer behind the congregation was founder Mother Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta, the first tribal woman declared as the Servant of God.

Mother Kispotta’s legacy and mission continue through 1,108 nuns now working in 149 convents in India, Italy and Germany.

The founder had already foreseen what Pope Francis said decades later: “To offer one’s life in mission is possible only if we can leave behind ourselves.”

The Pope’s saying has been true since Biblical times. The history that passes through the dramatic period of slavery in Egypt, the call of Moses, the experience of liberation, and the journey towards the Promised Land, is the origin of the amazing love story between God and His people.

The same amazing love story is seen between God and Bernadette who loved the people of Chotanagpur that covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

Bernadette was born on June 2, 1878, in an Adivasi Lutheran family at Sargaon, Ranchi, and baptized as Khrist Anandit Ruth Kispotta by a Lutheran pastor on June 16, 1878.

The arrival of Father Constant Lievens, a Jesuit missionary from Belgium in Ranchi on March 19, 1885, changed the entire socio-political and religious landscape of Chotanagpur.

People flocked to Father Lievens with their problems of land affected by the zamindari system, which was introduced by Cornwallis in 1793 through the Permanent Settlement Act, and many, including Kispotta’s family, expressed their desire to become Catholics.

Puran Prasad Kispotta of Oraon tribal origin, a court official and father of Khrist Anandit Ruth, and his entire household too became Catholic except her.

Khrist Anandit was studying at the Lutheran School. Initially, she decided to remain a Lutheran forever. But she went through persistent struggles and discernment. She received the divine enlightenment on looking at the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception.

Later, she was baptized in the Catholic Church and received the first Holy Communion on July 31, 1890. She was given a new name – Mary Bernadette Kispotta.

No doubt, God led Bernadette beyond her initial situation, freed her from all enslavement, broke down her habits and her indifferences and brought her to the joy of communion with Him and with His people.

Bernadette, while studying in the Loreto Convent, saw the hard work of the Loreto Sisters with an ardent love for Jesus to gather as many souls as possible, embracing the design of God for the salvation of humanity.

She was moved by the Loreto nuns’ work, sacrifice and love for people.

This passion for Christ and humanity flamed the heart of Bernadette to hear the cry of her people who were crushed in the mill of the zamindari system, particularly women and children. This challenging situation of the people moved her to say:

“How these Sisters had left their dear parents, brothers and sisters as well as their friends and relations, their own country out of love of Jesus and had come to the godforsaken jungle area among the poor and lowly people and how they labored day and night with great affection to help the souls to reach heaven. If these Sisters sacrifice and do so much for us, then why should we not be ready to follow their beautiful example and work for the good of our own country and people?”

Bernadette had hardly spent two years in school, when marriage proposals began to pour in from everywhere.

In the beginning, no one knew the hidden intentions of Bernadette and only much later the Church authorities knew it.

Bernadette discreetly reflected that her vocation to religious life is God’s initiative. Therefore, despite all sorts of opposition and disturbance, from family, society, culture and tradition, she was determined to dedicate her life for Christ’s sake. It was a crucial moment to discern and go beyond, yet she left behind all personal security, social status, respect, honor and wealth.

On this account, Church authorities were afraid of losing the faith of the people because of the refusal of the girl for marriage. Bernadette and her three initial companions—Cecilia, Veronica and Mary were sent out of the school because of their refusal of marriage.

She even refused to adorn herself with jewels for Christ’s sake. She suffered the loss of all things, and regarded them as rubbish, that she may gain Christ (Cf. Phil 3:8). She wanted to become the Bride of Christ not of a man. Her father wanted to kill Bernadette due to the refusal of marriage.

No doubt, in all obscure and dark pursuits she drew herself closer to Christ, that nothing could separate her from the love of Christ (Cf. Rom 8:35), neither hardship, distress, persecution, nakedness, peril or sword.

Her father even demanded all the clothes and things given to her. Bernadette desired to be emptied for Christ. She returned everything with a beautiful letter of gratitude to her parents. She suffered rejection and contempt for Jesus.

She renounced the temporal goods and considered everything as loss, not gain. “My heart and soul will become worldly and I will be lost forever,” she said. She became poor both in reality and in spirit.

The then Jesuit Archbishop Paul Goethals of Ranchi seeing the ardent desire of Bernadette and her companion said, “They must wait for eight years. If they keep themselves upright, holy and worthy of the great spiritual life then I will think about it.”

It was the great consolation for Bernadette to walk an extra mile of eight years for Christ. Unfortunately, the year 1895-1896 witnessed a terrible famine and cholera epidemics in the country. People died of cholera and hunger every day.

Bernadette and her three companions got a chance to serve the victims of the epidemic by distributing medicines, rice, dal, clothes and mats, comforted and taught the basics of religion with priests and nuns.

Finally, Church authorities realized God’s will for her and her companions, “If the girls from other countries can live a consecrated life for the glory of God and the salvation of souls through the acts of charity, then why can this not happen in our own country? Knowing the strong resolve of these girls to remain virgins, we now understand what they want. It is certainly God’s will. He wants the girls from this underdeveloped country should also commit themselves totally in service and work for the salvation of souls.”

Bernadette endured all injustice, shame, and poverty at the highpoint of exercising a choice of life in abandonment. God refined her not as silver but in the furnace of suffering.

Bernadette was 19 when she and three companions — Cecilia, Veronica and Mary, founded the Daughters of St. Anne, Ranchi, on July 26, 1897.

She died at the age of 83 on April 16, 1961, after the 64 years of her missionary work.

No doubt, the souls of the righteous never die; they are alive and active in and through their followers. Bernadette has been bestowed the title of “Servant of God” on August 7, 2016.

As the Congregation marks its 124th foundation day, the members recommit to keep her missionary motto “Better service with the love of Jesus” to all.