Bodil Katharine Biørn (27 May 1871 – 22 July 1960), also known as Mother Katharine, was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

missionary.

Biography

Biørn was born on 27 January 1871 in

Kragerø Kragerø () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional regions of Grenland and the smaller Vestmar. ...

, Norway, to the family of a wealthy ship owner. In 1905, after studying nursing in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, she was sent by the Women's Missionary Organization to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and worked as a missionary nurse in Mezereh, Kharberd Province and later in

Mush In multiplayer online games, a MUSH (a backronymed variation on MUD most often expanded as Multi-User Shared Hallucination, though Multi-User Shared Hack, Habitat, and Holodeck are also observed) is a text-based online social medium to which mult ...

. In cooperation with German missionaries, she opened schools and a clinic for widows and orphans. A witness of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

, she and her colleagues saved the lives of many homeless women and children. She also documented the horrifying and tragic events she witnessed through her testimonial diary and her photography. In the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

, Biørn took care of Armenian orphans in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, Armenia and Turkey. In 1922 she founded an orphanage named "Lusaghbyur" in

Alexandropol Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

. She continued her work by helping Armenian refugees in

and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. She died in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

on 22 July1960. At the initiative of the Armenian community of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, a statue honoring Bodil Biørn was created and shipped to the city of Kragerø and erected there in 2004. A delegation from Aleppo headed up by Jirair Reisian attended the ceremony. She is the subject of the movies '' Map of Salvation'' (2015) and ''They Call Me Mother'' (2008).

External links

Bioern, Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
* ttps://hetq.am/en/article/27216 Bodil Biorn – An Unsung Heroinebr>Historien om Bodil Biørn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biorn, Bodil Katharine 1871 births 1960 deaths People from Kragerø Norwegian expatriates in Germany Norwegian Protestant missionaries Witnesses of the Armenian genocide Female Christian missionaries Christian medical missionaries Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire Protestant missionaries in Turkey Norwegian expatriates in the Ottoman Empire

Biography

See also

External links