Sr. Teresa of St. Rose of Lima

Her Story

When Mary Grace D’Lima was born on 29 January 1859, in Madras, South India, not even her proud parents anticipated the impact their daughter would have on thousands of lives. She was an extraordinary human being whose vision of empowering women has shaped and moulded many a future.

Mary Grace grew to be an educator. After her Matriculation and Teacher’s Higher Grade Examination, she was given charge of St. Joseph’s School for girls in Allepey. She was 21 at the time. While working under the guidance of the Carmelite Missionaries, she received her calling. She became a Carmelite Tertiary, taking the name of Sr. Teresa of St. Rose of Lima and was given the mandate to form a convent and an English medium school for girls at the tender age of 29.

Within a mere fifteen years Mother Teresa had taken enormous strides towards fulfilling her goals. Besides founding a community of fervent Carmelite Religious, she also started three schools, including an industrial school for orphaned children. She cared for many destitute and abandoned children in the orphanage she founded, sheltered wayward women & initiated a well planned programme to rehabilitate them with respectability. She also found the time to care for the aged, destitute and unwanted women at her Home for the Aged, start a dispensary with a qualified doctor to take care of the medical needs of the people under her care, help the Government during the Famine Relief Programme in Ernakulam, in 1897, and helped in the offering of Holy Mass in the Sub Jail.

Mother Teresa met with a tragic and untimely death in a train accident, leaving behind a community of 12 sisters. Despite their bereavement , the sisters kept the spirit of selfless service alive. Their education apostolate has enlightened and empowered generations of young women from all strata of society.

The Congregation began to expand to other states in India, and also to America, Germany, Africa, Argentina and the Gulf. Today they run three first grade colleges, one training college, several higher secondary schools, high schools, middle, primary and nursery schools, five homes for the aged, several children's homes, dispensaries, crèches, one rehabilitation centre and one hospice for terminally ill cancer patients.

Like her namesake, Mother Teresa had unbounded energy and a single-minded focus towards the service of Humanity. Today, her spirit lives on through the apostolate she had started so many years ago.