Mother Teresa: a biography

RATHFARNHAM HOUSE
Upon their arrival in Paris, the two girls were taken to the Villa Moli-
tor to see Mother Eugene MacAvin, the sister in charge of the Loreto
House in Paris. There they were interviewed with the help of an inter-
preter from the Yugoslavian embassy. Both Gonxha and Betike were ap-
proved and then sent on to Dublin where they would stay at the Loreto
Abbey at Rathfarnham House.
The two arrived at Rathfarnham, a simple red-brick building, in Sep-
tember; Gonxha was somewhat comforted upon seeing the statue of the
Blessed Mother in the courtyard. The two young women, wearing the
long white habit, or dress, and black veil of the Loreto nuns, spent most of
the next six weeks studying English, the language in which they were to
teach. In order to help them become more comfortable with the language,
the two were instructed never to speak in their native tongue, something
that both Betike and Gonxha obediently followed. Unlike the native-
speaking novitiates, Gonxha and Betike received little other instruction
and had little opportunity to get to know many of the other sisters and
postulates staying at Loreto Abbey. From all accounts, though, it appeared
that Gonxha had inherited her father’s flair for languages and was further
helped in her studies by Mother Mary Emmanuel McDermott who was
another postulant at Loreto Abbey. At the end of six weeks, on December
1, 1928, the two women set sail for India and their new life. Upon their
arrival there, the two would begin their novitiate, that is the period of
study and prayer which every nun takes before her final vows.
The sea voyage proved long and arduous, winding its way through the
Suez Canal, then the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and finally the Bay of
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M O T H E R T E R E S A

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Bengal. Christmas was celebrated aboard the ship with three other Fran-
ciscan nuns, also missionaries bound for India. The group sang Christmas
carols around a small paper crib made quickly for the celebration. Their
only regret was that there was no priest aboard to celebrate mass. But that
all changed when the ship made port at Colombo, where a priest would
accompany the nuns for the rest of the voyage.
On January 6, 1929, the ship made port at Calcutta. But at this point,
Gonxha had little chance to become acquainted with her surroundings.
After just a few days, on January 16, she was sent to the Loreto Novitiate
located in Darjeeling, a fashionable hill resort about 400 miles north of
Calcutta.