The Sisters of the Sacred Heart is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

religious order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...

founded in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n city of

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - (Tirhut), near Indo-Nepal border, north-west of Patna, in Bihar state of India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Bhumihar Brahmin of ...

in 1927. Their

charism A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα ''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the ...

is "education and catechetical instruction, care of the sick and social service according to the needs of the church and time."

History

The Sisters of the Sacred Heart was founded on 11 June 1926 by Bishop Louis Van Hoeck in the city of

, home to the northern Indian subcontinent's oldest Christian community known as the

Bettiah Christians The Bettiah Christians ( hi, बेतिया मसीही, ur, بیتیاہ مسیحی, transliteration: ''Béttiah Masīhī''), also known as Betiawi Christians, are the northern Indian subcontinent's oldest Christian community, which emerg ...

. It was founded with the focus of "women religious to serve in villages", where most of the population in the

Bihar Province Bihar Province was a province of British India, created in 1936 by the partition of the Bihar and Orissa Province. History In 1756, Bihar was part of Bengal. On 14 October 1803, Orissa was occupied by the British Raj. On 22 March 1912, both Biha ...

colonial India Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spices. The search for the wealth and prosper ...

resided at the time. The Sisters of the Sacred Heart has established several schools. In the 1980s, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart shifted from Bettiah to

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, from where they have been based since that time. On 30 July 2020, Sister Elsita Mathew, the

Superior General A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of a religious institute in the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations. The superior general usually holds supreme executive authority in the religious community, while t ...

of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart died; her funeral was held on 31 July 2020 at Queen of the Apostles’ Church in Patna.

References

{{Catholic religious institutes Catholic female orders and societies Catholic religious institutes established in the 19th century 1926 establishments in India