Ninety-five years ago, when Mother Anna Dengel founded the Medical Mission Sisters in Washington, D.C., she knew she was being called to begin a special mission in the Church. It was a mission unlike any other that existed in 1925. But she was convinced that it was greatly needed.
For almost four years in early 1920s Anna had worked as the only doctor for thousands of women and children in what was then Northern India (today’s Pakistan). There Muslim law had kept women from the only available health care because it was provided by men. As a result, each year hundreds of mothers and babies died before, during or after childbirth, or of preventable diseases.
Anna felt privileged that as a woman she was able to offer suffering Muslim women the care and compassion they needed. But what was one doctor among so much need? Beyond Rawalpindi, throughout all of Northern India, and around the world, there were countless others denied the opportunity for health that they deserved because they were outcasts, uneducated or poor.
To respond as fully as possible to these individuals, Doctor Dengel believed that a religious community of professionally trained women, dedicated to serving those in need of health care under the auspices of the Catholic Church, was essential. Since a medieval ban on Sisters being doctors was still part of the Church’s canon law, no such religious organization existed. Anna’s faith and determination were not swayed, however. So, she traveled to the United States to do what she knew she was being called to do. After almost a year of speaking in schools and Churches, writing newspaper and magazine articles, and discussing the overwhelming needs of India and other parts of the world with priests, bishops, and cardinals, Anna Dengel founded the Congregation, on September 30, 1925, in Washington, D.C. Dr. Anna Dengel of Austira, Dr. Joanna Lyons of Chicago, Evelyn Flieger, R.N., originally of Britain, and Marie Ulbrich, R.N., of Luxemburg, Iowa, came together to begin the Medical Mission Sisters Congregation.
From its earliest days, the Congregation has been especially attentive to the “signs of the times.” The spirit of Vatican II documents and our attention to the signs of the times greatly influenced the evolution of our ministry. Gradually, as Medical Mission Sisters, we recognized our mission as one of trying to be a healing presence of Christ in a wounded world. Today, we are stressing less what we do, more how we love and how we manifest this in our own person. Our Founder, Mother Anna Dengel, could say that she was fire and flame, consumed with desire to further Christ’s Kingdom, to live the Gospel, and reach out in love to all her neighbors. May we who follow her, be warmed by her fire and flame.
“As Medical Missionaries, the needs and sufferings of humanity must find an echo in our hearts.”
(Mother Anna Dengel)
Medical Mission Sisters in South India has a unique origin in the local milieu and local Church. It was God’s providence that in June 1937, Fr. Sebastian Pinakkat, a young priest of the then Changanacherry diocese, happened to hear from a Catholic newspaper about Mother Anna Dengel and the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries of Washington D.C and their pioneering mission in Rawalpindi. He wrote immediately to Mother Anna Dengel, narrating the dire need for good hospitals in India and explaining his “bold dream” to start a Medical Mission Sisterhood of indigenous sisters to do Medical work and requested her to start a Hospital in Kerala. Mother responded to Fr. Pinakkat showing great interest and expressing her desire to respond, but regretting the inability to do so because of lack of sisters. He caught on a ray of hope and continued his contact with her. Mother Dengel considered training indigenous women as nurses in preparation for religious life.Fr. Pinakkat and His Excellency Bishop Mar James Kalacherry strategized on how they might proceed and from 1940 young women were sent to Rawalpindi for nursing.
The first group completed their studies and returned to Kerala in November 1943. The four candidates started their formation under the guidance of Srs. Pauline Downing and Vincent Deegan, with the permission of His Excellency Bishop Mar James Kalacherry. On completion of the Novitiate the four pioneers Sr.Veronica Vadakkummury, Sr. Salome Chirakadavil, Sr. Magdalen Neriamparampil and Sr.Mary John Kuthivalachel made first vows on 8th September 1946 and gradually the membership and mission expanded.
On November 28, 1953, through the decree of amalgamation, the community became integral part of the International Congregation of Medical Mission Sisters around the world.
