Kalighat Home For The Dying

Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday) (formerly Kalighat Home for the Dying) is a hospice for the sick, destitute and the dying in Kalighat, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, established by Mother Teresa. The building was an old abandoned Hindu temple to the goddess Kali, the Hindu goddess of time and change, before she sought permission to use it. It was founded by Mother Teresa on her 42nd birthday in 1952, two years after she established Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950 Mother Teresa opened this free hospice in 1952, next to the famous Kalighat Kali Temple in Kalighat Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials, she changed an abandoned building which previously served as a temple for the Hindu goddess Kali into the “Kalighat home for the dying”, a free hospice for the poor. Later on she changed the name to “Kalighat the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday)”. People who were brought to the home received medical attention from the Missionaries of Charity and were given the opportunity to die with dignity. "It was weird trying to change the temple into a home for the dying, but it was helpful to the men and women dying" MB 8J