In Memory

Although we have lost you, you are not forgotten, you are always in our heart. With love from all of us ...

Mother Anna Maria Dengel, S.C.M.M

(16 March 1892 – 17 April 1980) was an Austrian physician, Religious Sister and missionary. She was the founder of the Medical Mission Sisters, which was among the first congregations of Religious Sisters authorized by the Roman Catholic Church to provide full medical care to the poor and needy in the overseas missions.

The Legacy of Anna Dengel-
When Mother Anna Dengel died in April 1980, many individuals remembered her and her accomplishments. But perhaps no more eloquently and succinctly than Reverend Bartley MacPhaidin, C.S.C., homilist at her Memorial Liturgy in Philadelphia.

If I could use one word to describe her, “he said. “it would be: integrity. Integrity, coming from the Latin integritas, meaning one or whole. Anna Dengel was that.” He went on to name what best described her contributions to this world: “First, she was an instrument chosen by God to bring the reality of the medical mission from its seedbed in Scottish and English Protestantism and to implant it four-square in the Catholic Church.

Second, she combined religious life in the Church with medical professionalism in a thoroughgoing way. Her community became known for that: competence and care, faith and self-reliance, love and leaning.

Third, she was responsible for bringing the compassion of Jesus to thousands of His people, and the healing hands she inspired in those who followed her way brought comfort to the multitudes, not only on the Indian subcontinent but in Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and Africa as well.” She dreamed of a world where no boundaries existed, where women and men, Christian and Muslim, villagers and city dweller all had access to what would make them fully human, and so do her Sisters today.

She laid the important groundwork for our sisters to explore more fully what it means to be a healing presence among people in need, what it means to empower others, to bring them to an awareness of their basic right to life and to health.

Mr. Anil Monohar Marandi was born in Konardi village, Gola block Ramgarh, the only son in a poor illiterate farmers family. Anil is one of the first Santhal graduate in Hazaribagh district who worked with Father Hans Henricks. He mainly did development work among the Santhals. He joined the organization full time in 1982 and became one of the founders and eventually to become the first president of the organization CASS jointly founded. He was the chair person of (BIRSA) Bindrai Institute of Research Study and Action.

Because of him, today the Santhals have an identity. He was a simple man, always smiling and people oriented. His heart was filled with empathy and compassion which brought him to organize the first football matches for the Santhal youth. Being leader, he was invited to chair many social events. He was known as an intellectual man, skilled, simple yet very profound. He was gifted in conflict resolution and also empowered people to resolve their issues. He was a loved by the community but most of all by his family.

Ms. Domonica Tirkey was the daughter of a Bahadur Tirkey, born on April 30th, 1936 in a village Bagmaria in Gumla district. She was the youngest of the three sisters. She did her education in Gumla Mission School. After her education, she served at Mandar Holy Family Hospital. Since 1981, she was in Hazaribagh and would work with Father Hans Henkricks in Gomia and later along with sister Gemma in Harley Horomocha and Kasiadih among the Santhal community. She taught mainly in the village government school and gave education to the children. Her contribution to the children of Kasiadih will never be forgotten by the people. She will remain an inspiration for her hard work which is reflected in the present youth that are employed due to her teaching and mentoring. The children miss her even today.

Germaine Alphonse a “Poona girl” travelled many a path to find the one she sort – relevance. She evolved from being a Medical Mission Sister to becoming a missionary in the Santhal Adivasi homeland . She then moved further out into the forests of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand where she finally settled to work and be one with them. Stubbornly determined she stuck deep there to serve the people being dispossessed and pauperized by the outside world. To empower them, she built a school, a boarding, a chain of health workers, a clinic and micro credit groups for women.

In Memory

The Founder Of Medical Mission Sisters

-JOHAR-