Sr. Marie Vengathanam (Marykutty Thomas )

Sr. Marie hailed from Kerala, South India. She was the third among 6 siblings, 3 boys and 3 girls of her pious and devoted Catholic Parents who instilled in all of them deep faith in God from their childhood. Marie had great desire to serve God as a missionary from her childhood and waited for the opportunity to leave her homeland to serve the poor and downtrodden. When she expressed to the parents the desire to be a religious they gave consent to join the local congregation but Marie’s daring spirit was restless until she came to know about RNDM Congregation. She took a bold step with another girl and travelled all the way from Kerala to Shillong and joined our Congregation.

Sr. Marie was born on 4^th January and was always proud to celebrate her birthday with Euphrasie Barbier. She was endowed with many qualities of Euphrasie and the outstanding ones were passion for mission, simple life style, prayer, out spoken, sense of justice, courage and compassion for the poor and downtrodden. Sr. Marie truly lived the values of Euphrasie and left a legacy for others to follow.  She never looked for an easy life but always opted for challenging ministries and pioneered Belvai, Banaswadi, Narkatiaganj, Kanti and Kalyanpur with other sisters. She was always ready to go through the hardships at the beginning of a new mission and learned four more languages apart from her mother tongue and gave her best service everywhere with exceptional passion. Her heart was always for the poor and she lived among them opting their simple and poor life style and served them with love.

After the General Chapter in 1984 Marie was obsessed with “option for the poor” and the province opened a mission in Narkatiaganj Bihar, keeping in mind the chapter thrust where people lived in extreme poverty and illiteracy. Marie with great enthusiasm left for Bihar without knowing the language with two other sisters and lived in a tiny hut among the non-Christians and Dalits. They began to organise classes for the women and children through non formal education under the trees and wherever they found a place in the open. They had to walk so many kilometres to reach different villages to animate the groups. Initially people looked at them with great suspicion thinking that their intention was to convert them to Christianity. It took a few years to win the trust of the people but no hardships stopped Marie from her determination to empower women and children. The life of women were very oppressive in the area where they were working and they could not imagine our sisters living together without getting married and freely mingling with the people. Many times at night people threw stones at their hut and Marie with great courage, calling the name of Jesus used to come out to challenge them. Those who lived with her too acquired the courage and daring spirit from her.

When Narkatiaganj was slowly taking shape she opted for another similar mission in Kanti and continued the same work. It was a herculean task to organise and empower the women and children there too. It was her faith in God and prayer stood by in such challenging time. Once some people got angry and came at night to kill her and but she had a narrow escape. Nothing could deviate her from the love of Chirst and service to the poor.

Marie loved life and lived to the full. Her golden jubilee was in 2013 and she waited eagerly for that day to celebrate her life.  Province took trouble to make her day a memorable one and she was very happy with the celebrations. Her relatives, friends, orphan children, borders and parishioners in Kalyanpur came and added colour to the celebration and all of them expressed their gratitude for all that she had been to each one. She never missed any special events and enjoyed the company of friends, relatives and the people who became part of her life from ministries in various places.

Marie kept update with attending various courses, reading books and newspaper and shared her knowledge with great joy in the community. She was faithful and generous in bringing various concerns of the congregation, world events, and family issues in prayer. In the midst of all the activities she found time to connect with her family members who reciprocated her love.

In 2016 the province built Euphrasie care home in Rajarghat for the senior sisters and Marie was ready to leave her active ministry to a more prayerful and contemplative life. But Marie kept up her active life here too by taking part in everything and keeping the community alive by sharing and participating in community meetings and discussions. She used to be always at the door to welcome visitors with a great smile. Her health was declining gradually but her will power kept her moving forward and wanted to live till 103 but God wanted her earlier. On 27 December 2021 Marie had a fall in her room and her age was against a full recovery. She was an independent person and depending on others for everything was difficult for her. On 5^th February 2022 she took a bad turn and was admitted in a nursing home and she showed slight improvement.  Her relatives came to meet her from Kerala on 14^th February and she was delighted to meet them. They left on 16 and on 17^th night Marie took a bad turn and got the anointing of the sick the next morning. She went to God on 18 February at 4.15 p.m.

Marie was truly a missionary in all aspects of her life and her countless daring adventures and stories live on in our hearts and she lives in the hearts of the poor and downtrodden whom she empowered with great dedication and zeal. Rest in Peace Marie!