Mary Prema Pierick, MC (born 13 May 1953), is a German-Indian

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and ...

and the former

Superior General A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of the

Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity () is a Catholic centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. , it consisted o ...

of Calcutta, India, the

religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...

founded by the

Saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

of Calcutta.

Biography

Pierick was born Mechthild Pierick in a farming community in

Reken Reken is a municipality in the district of Borken, in North Rhine-Westphalia, 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 t ...

, Germany. In 1980, after reading the biography of the foundress, ''Something Beautiful for God'' by

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was a conservative British journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, i ...

, she went to meet Mother Teresa in Berlin. She felt called to join her work and moved to India to join the Missionaries of Charity. Pierick eventually became the Regional Superior of the institute for the sisters in Europe. She returned to India to supervise the

tertianship Tertianship is the final period of formation for members of the Society of Jesus. Upon invitation of the Provincial, it usually begins three to five years after completion of graduate studies. It is a time when the candidate for final vows steps ...

program of the institute, the last stage of training before the perpetual

vows A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promise; see vote) is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise that is solemn rather than casual. Marriage vows Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ...

. She succeeded Sister

Nirmala Joshi Maria Nirmala Joshi (23 July 1934 – 23 June 2015) was an Indian religious sister who succeeded Nobel laureate Mother Teresa as the head of the Missionaries of Charity and expanded the movement overseas. After taking over the charity following ...

on 24 March 2009, heading an organisation which had over 5,000 members worldwide at that time.Mother Teresa Center

References

External links

New head of Mother Teresa order to follow her footsteps, AFPGerman-born nun to head Mother Teresa's order, AP
1953 births Living people People from Borken (district) German emigrants to India Indian people of German descent Naturalised citizens of India People who lost German citizenship Superiors general 20th-century German Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century Indian Roman Catholic nuns {{Germany-reli-bio-stub