Missionaries of Charity

File:Sisters of Charity.jpg

Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity

Missionaries of Charity (MC) is a Roman Catholic Latin rite congregation started on 7 October in 1950. It was founded by Mother Teresa. It started in the slums of Kolkata (Calcutta, India) with Mother Teresa and 12 sisters. It now has a membership of nearly 5,000 sisters worldwide. Members of the religious order show they belong to this group using the order's initials, "M.C." A sister who belongs to MC must follow their vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. There is also a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." MC members all wear the same white and blue habit that Mother Teresa wore.

From one to three stripes

In 1948 Mother Teresa changed her Sisters of Loreto habit to a simple cotton white sari with one blue stripe. Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary. The sari covered an all white habit. She (and later, her sisters of charity) wore the habit for over ten years. But parents of several Bengali sisters pointed out that the sari with one blue stripe was also worn by poor women who swept the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa and her sisters officially adopted the three blue stripes in 1960.

Missionaries Of Charity Media

• Missionaries of Charity Mother House.jpg

  Missionaries of Charity's Mother House (Headquarters) in Kolkata

• Nirmal Hriday, Calcutta.jpg

  Mother Teresa's home for the dying destitute Nirmal Hriday at Kalighat, Kolkata.

Other websites

• Volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata Archived 2016-01-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Missionaries of Charity Fathers (started by Mother Teresa)