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

Biography

Biørn was born on 27 January 1871 in

Kragerø Kragerø () is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional districts of Grenland and the smaller Vestmar. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kragerø. Villages in Kragerø include H ...

, 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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

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

Mush In multiplayer online games, a MUSH (a backronymed variation on Multi-user dungeon, 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 m ...

. 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, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

, 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 () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

, Biørn took care of Armenian orphans in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

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

Alexandropol Gyumri (, ) is an urban municipal community and the List of cities and towns in Armenia, 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 centur ...

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

. She continued her work by helping Armenian refugees in

and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. She died in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

on 22 July 1960. At the initiative of the Armenian community of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, 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 Christian missionaries in the Ottoman Empire

Biography

See also

External links