cal Mission Sisters for too short a time. He had fully expected her to stay
much longer: at least six months, even up to a year. The archbishop felt
similarly; both men wanted
Mother Teresa to stay longer, to make sure she
had taken advantage of every opportunity for her medical training.
Still, her letters kept coming, asking for permission to leave for Cal-
cutta. She had learned all she could, plus receiving knowledge about dis-
eases that she most likely would not encounter in the city’s slums. Further,
she argued, she would learn more about cholera, sores, and other diseases
that were prevalent in the slums if she were living and working among the
poor who suffered from them. The Medical Missionaries agreed with
Mother Teresa; it was time for Mother Teresa to begin her mission.
Not
convinced, Father Van Exem traveled to Patna to meet with
Mother Teresa and Sister Stephanie to discuss what was to be done.
When he arrived at Holy Family, he looked for
Mother Teresa, but could
not find her in the group of nurses at the hospital. Finally, a small voice
answered, “But Father, I am here.”
7
Father Van Exem, having never seen
Mother Teresa in her sari, completely overlooked her.
Meeting with Sister Stephanie and the sister-doctor who had been
overseeing Mother Teresa, Father Van Exem listened as the two explained
why it was time for Mother Teresa to leave. She was ready to begin her life
in the slums they told him, and they would always be there should she
need advice or direction in medical matters. Father Van Exem then ex-
plained that both he and the archbishop were concerned about the possi-
bility of a church scandal should Mother Teresa fail in her mission. She
would not make a mistake, the sisters assured him, and again they re-
minded him that there were others who would
share in the responsibility
of her undertaking. Finding himself outnumbered, Father Van Exem re-
lented: Mother Teresa could go to Calcutta.
NOTES
1. Navin Chawla,
Mother Teresa: The Authorized Biography
(Rockport, Mass.:
Element, 1992), p. 21.
2. Kathryn Spink,
Mother Teresa
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1997), p. 24.
3. Edward Le Joly,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Biography
(San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1977), pp. 10–11.
4. Le Joly,
Mother Teresa,
p. 12.
5. Spink,
Mother Teresa,
p. 29.
6. Eileen Egan,
Such a Vision of the Street: Mother Teresa
—
The Spirit and the
Work
(Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1986), p. 35.
7. Spink,
Mother Teresa,
p. 33.
3 8
M O T H E R T E R E S A
Chapter 4
OUT OF A CESSPOOL—HOPE
Shortly after his visit with Mother Teresa and the Medical Mission Sis-
ters, Father Van Exem wrote to Mother Teresa that the archbishop had re-
lented and given his permission for her to return to Calcutta. He had also
found a place for her to live with the Little Sisters of the Poor.
She arrived
at the St. Joseph’s Home for the elderly, located at 2 Lower Circular Road,
on December 9, 1948. It had been barely four months since she had left
the Loreto convent in Entally and started her training in Patna. Prior to
her leaving Patna, Mother Teresa spoke with one of the nun-doctors in
the cemetery of the convent grounds. Remarking that she had no idea
how she was going to proceed or where she would even begin, Mother
Teresa nonetheless remained confident that God would direct her. And
with
that thought, she made her way back to Calcutta to undertake her
life’s work.
Although Calcutta had the third highest per-capita income in India,
it was a vast sea of suffering and despair. The streets, where people were
born and died hourly, were crowded with beggars and lepers, together
with a host of refugees from the countryside who had never known a
home. Unwanted infants were regularly abandoned and left to die in
clinics,
on the streets, or in garbage bins. There were thousands of
pavement dwellers within the city itself; 44 percent of the city did not
have sewers. It was into this sea of misery that Mother Teresa now
came.
The St. Joseph’s Home proved to be a good choice for Mother Teresa.
The Little Sisters of the Poor lived in strict poverty. Although they
worked through other institutions, they had no regular source of income
to draw on and were completely dependent on donations of food and
money. This dependence on God and the charity of others became an im-
portant element with the Missionaries of Charity as well. Although the
mother superior was at first unsure about
whether Mother Teresa could
stay at the St. Joseph’s Home, Father Van Exem assured her that Mother
Teresa had received a decree of exclaustration and that she was still an-
swerable to the archbishop.
Upon her arrival, Mother Teresa made a short retreat under Father Van
Exem’s guidance. They decided to meet every morning; she would spend
afternoons in prayer and meditation. She also spent part of her time dur-
ing those first days at the convent helping the sisters care for their aged
patients.
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