Jaipur: While everywhere we hear the cry “No vocation”, or “the youth of today do not like religious life,” the Prabhudasi Sisters of Ajmer (PSA Sisters), an Indian Religious Congregation of women at the service of people in need, in Rajasthan, North India disprove this with their increase of vocation from unknown areas of Christianity like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Assam where Christianity is hardly unknown.
This is the fruit of the PSA commitment along with the Capuchin Missionaries in Rajasthan for nearly a century. This region was and still is known for extreme poverty, desert, social oppression of women and children due to traditions and low literacy rate.
The first Bishop of Ajmer, Fortunatus Henry Caumont, OFM Cap from France, found this region completely cut off from development. Hence he began the Prabhudasi Sisters of Ajmer in 1906 to be totally committed to the poorest of the poor with special focus on women and children.
His own sister Mary Fortuna became the first General of the Congregation to actualise this dream. He also began another religious congregation, the Missionary Sisters of Ajmer (MSA) to educate the girl children for which his yet another sister Metilda became the first General. The growth of the Church in Rajasthan today with three dioceses (Ajmer, Udaipur and Jaipur) goes to a great extent to these two congregations along with the Capuchins.
While a great famine killed thousands of people in Rajasthan last century, the PSA Sisters saved them by pitching their tent with the neglected rural poor. Their mission was their presence in remote villages, educate and motivate them in moral values, faith formation, catechesis, informal education, sacraments and pastoral care along with adult baptisms.
Initially the PSA Sisters stayed the whole week with the people in their villages and were accepted due to their knowledge of the local dialects, simplicity of dress, humble dwellings, being vegetarians just like the people of the region.
Originally their convents were known as ashrams and sisters lived like sanyasinis in solidarity with the local people through their asceticism. Gradually they also led the children in their Hindi medium schools and also began a few English medium schools in the outskirts of the towns to educate the rural poor.
They are also known for their rural dispensaries and day care centres for the mentally retarded persons along with several self-help groups of women for their socio economic uplift and entrepreneurship.
While several religious congregations continue to suffer for want of vocations, the PSA Sisters have been alse to get committed young women to join their challenging life and mission in predominantly non-Christian areas.
Photo: St. Theresa School run by PSA Sisters in Ajmer.