Missionaries of Charity

Missionaries of Charity (MC) is a Roman Catholic Latin rite congregation started on 7 October in 1950. It was founded  by Mother Teresa. It started in the slums of Kolkata (Calcutta, India) with Mother Teresa and 12 sisters. It now has a membership of nearly 5,000 sisters worldwide. Members of the religious order show they belong to this group using the order's initials, "M.C." A sister who belongs to MC must follow their vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. There is also a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God (New York: Harper & Row, 1986),  pp. 105, 113 MC members all wear the same white and blue habit that Mother Teresa wore.

 From one to three stripes 
In 1948 Mother Teresa changed her Sisters of Loreto habit to a simple cotton white sari with one blue stripe. Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary. The sari covered an all white habit. She (and later, her sisters of charity) wore the habit for over ten years. But parents of several Bengali sisters pointed out that the sari with one blue stripe was also worn by poor women who swept the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa and her sisters officially adopted the three blue stripes in 1960.

 References 

 Other websites 

 Volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata 
 Missionaries of Charity Fathers (started by Mother Teresa)


Category:Roman Catholic religious orders
Category:Kolkata
Category:1950 establishments in India
Category:Religious organizations established in the 20th century