The Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi, part 2

The Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi, based in Ranchi, the capital of India’s Jharkhand state, is an indigenous religious congregation founded nearly 120 years ago, in 1897 by Mother  Mary   Bernadette   Prasad Kispotta, a local Chotanagpur  tribal woman, together with three of her companions.  With the opening of the process of her sainthood in the Archdiocese of Ranchi on Aug. 7 this year, ‎Mother Kispotta became the first tribal woman of India to be declared a “Servant of God”  by the ‎Catholic Church. ‎

Last week in the first part of an interview with the Superior General of the Daughters of St. Anne, Ranchi, Sr. Linda Mary Vaughn,  we came to know how Mother Kispotta, who was a Lutheran, converted to Catholicism.  She fought of pressures from her family to get married, saying, if nothing else, she would remain single to serve the Loreto nuns.  Inspired by the sacrifice and dedication of the Loreto nuns and the Belgian Jesuits from Calcutta, Mother Kispotta decided to found an order of her own that would easily associate and mingle with the tribal people, who lived in grinding poverty and were exploited and crushed by the landlords.  But for that, Mother Kispotta had to wait 8 years before being granted permission to found the Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi known by their initials, DSA Ranchi.  Sr. Vaughn said her order’s main thrust is pastoral work, which is carried out through education, healthcare and social work.  What began with just 4 members, is today a congregation with 1040 members, in 140 communities in India, Italy and Germany, with three more opening this year.

Well, today, in the final part of this  interview, Sr. Vaughn begins by telling us about the schools of the  Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi.

Listen: