ST. MARY’S SCHOOL
The school was hidden from the everyday world by high gray walls and
tall iron gates. Upon passing through the entrance gates, one came upon
a complex of buildings with playing fields and well-tended lawns. The
campus comprised several buildings of varying architectural styles. Besides
an administrative building and smaller gray classroom building was St.
Mary’s School. There were also quarters for the nuns and for those stu-
dents who boarded at the school, mostly orphans, girls from broken
homes, and children with only one parent.
The school had already established a reputation for itself. Established
in 1841, as one of the six Loreto schools in Calcutta, the Calcutta school
in Entally educated orphans, the sons and daughters of the affluent and
foreign families living in the city. All children wore the same uniform;
there was no distinction by the sisters of the rich from the poor, the Euro-
pean from the Indian, Catholic from non-Catholic. The school was also
known for educating “Loreto Girls,” that is young Indian women who
graduated from Loreto College and who would go on to positions in edu-
cation and social welfare within Calcutta and India. Not only did teach-
ers and welfare workers graduate from Loreto College, but in time the first
woman judge of the Delhi High Court, a judge of the High Court of Cal-
cutta, and several members of the Indian Parliament all received degrees
from Loreto. In all, some 500 children and young women were in atten-
dance at the Loreto schools at Entally.
Here Sister Teresa took her place, teaching alongside the Daughters of
St. Anne. She taught history and geography. She also became more com-
fortable in her use of the Bengali language as St. Mary’s classes were
taught in both English and Bengali. She soon added another language,
Hindi. Her classrooms varied: sometimes, she taught in what once had
been a chapel and was now broken into five class areas; other times, she
taught in what was once the stables, or outside in the courtyard.
Though the Loreto Sisters might have been sequestered behind the
walls of their school and convent, they were not sheltered from the over-
whelming poverty of the area; for the poor conditions of the area were
found in the shabby environment of the school itself. Everyday, before be-
ginning the day’s lessons, Sister Teresa rolled up the sleeves of her habit,
found water and a broom, and proceeded to sweep the floor, much to the
delight and amazement of her students, as only people of the very lowest
caste performed menial duties such as these. When Teresa saw where the
children ate and slept, she was distressed at the terrible condition there.
ANSWERING THE CALL 19