Sister Mary Prema Pierick, M.C., is the current (2012) Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta, India, the religious institute founded by the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata).
She was born Mechthild Pierick on 13 May 1953, in a farming community in Reken, Germany. In 1980, after reading the biography of the foundress, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, she went to meet Mother Teresa in Berlin. She felt called to join her work and moved to India to join the Missionaries.
Pierick eventually became the Regional Superior of the institute for the Sisters in Europe. She returned to India to supervise the tertianship program of the institute, the last stage of training before final religious profession. She succeeded Sister Nirmala Joshi as Superior General on 24 March 2009, heading an institute which had over 5,000 members worldwide at that time.
Famous quotes containing the words sister and/or mary:
“It’s babe feminism—we’re young, we’re fun, we do what we want in bed—and it has a shorter shelf life than the feminism of sisterhood. I’ve been a babe, and I’ve been a sister. Sister lasts longer.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Remember, a woman has to work harder than a man and have more patience in order to achieve success.”
—Margaret Mary Morgan, U.S. suffragist, print shop owner, and politician. As quoted in Dianne Feinstein, ch. 5, by Jerry Roberts (1994)