The Daughters of St. Anne, based in Ranchi, the capital of India’s Jharkhand state, is an indigenous religious congregation whose members have DSA Ranchi as the identifying initials after their name. With a history of nearly 120 years, the Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi was founded on July 26, 1897 by Mother Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta, a local Chotanagpur tribal woman, together with three of her companions, as an answer to the situation and needs of the contemporary local Church at that time. Mother Kispotta died in on Apr. 16, 1961 at the age of 83, and with the opening of the process of her sainthood in the Archdiocese of Ranchi on Aug. 7 this year, Mother Kispotta thus became the first tribal woman of India to be declared a “Servant of God” by the Catholic Church.
According to their website, the charism of the Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi is: Better service with the love of Jesus; their vision: Christ filled society; their mission: to live Christ-like life among the poor and downtrodden through the apostolate of DSA; and their goal: to foster human dignity and respect among people of all religion.
Well, we came to know more about Mother Kispotta and her Daughters of St. Anne Ranchi from their current Superior General, Sr. Linda Mary Vaughn, who recently paid a visit to Vatican Radio, here in Rome. Today, in the first of a 2-part interview, she begins by telling us how it all began.
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