Mary Prema Pierick Biography 
Mary Prema Pierick is a social worker and Christian missionary, who currently serves as the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta. This religious institute aimed for charity was founded by the Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta in the year 1950. This Roman Catholic religious congregation had over 5000 sisters and is active in around 133 countries worldwide. She succeeded Sister Nirmala Joshi as Superior General on 24 March 2009.
Sister Mary Prema Pierick, M.C. was born as Mechthild Pierick on 13 May 1953 in Reken, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She was born into a farming community of Germany. In 1980 she happened to read Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, a biography of Mother Teresa, and got deeply influenced by her thoughts and missions. She got impressed by the simplicity of life the sisters were having in Calcutta. She met Mother Teresa in Berlin, and decided to move to India to join the Missionaries for social work. She was already 70 years old when Pierick met her for the first time, and Pierick was in her late 20s.
For Pierick, it was not Terasa’s outward appearance which affected her. But when she had a personal encounter with the woman's unconditional and mother-like love and acceptance, she got drawn towards her. She became the Regional Superior of the institute for the Sisters in Europe, and when she reached India, as the last step to take the religious profession, she supervised the tertianship program of the institute in Kolkata. She took the name Sister Mary Prema Pierick, whose name in Sanskrit means love. In 2009, she became the second successor of the charity organization, after the founder Terasa and Nirmala Joshi.
Published: July 23, 2018
Updated: July 23, 2018
