Celeste Van Exem (4 October 1908 - 20 September 1993) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

Jesuit priest who lived in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

from 1944 until his death there in 1993. Van Exem was a graduate of Louvain University, Belgium, and studied in Syria and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Life

After moving to India in 1938, the initial intent for his mission was to work closely with

Indian Muslims Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...

, aided by his proficiency in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and knowledge of Islam. However, shortly after his arrival in India, he met

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was ...

at Loreto School in Calcutta's Entally suburb, where she was stationed. Van Exem became a major influence on the formation and running of the

Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity ( la, Congregatio Missionariarum a Caritate) is a Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as ...

organisation, and continued to advise Mother Teresa until his death. In her later years, Mother Teresa wrote many letters to Van Exem, describing the progress of the newly founded Religious institute of the

and their charitable activities, as well as her personal struggles and spiritual doubts. These letters are possibly "the only sources that will shed light on Mother Teresa's inner life, struggles and strengths and also on her earlier companions."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Exem, Celest 1908 births 1993 deaths Jesuit history in Europe Jesuit education 20th-century Belgian Jesuits Catholic University of Leuven alumni Mother Teresa