Leonarda Casiraghi | |
---|---|
Born | Angela Casiraghi 18 October 1922 |
Died | 27 August 2011 88) | (aged
Nationality | Italian (former) Indian |
Occupation(s) | Catholic missionary Social worker |
Years active | 1955–2011 |
Known for | Our Lady of Lourdes Charitable Hospital |
Awards | Padma Shri (1998) |
Leonarda Casiraghi (born Angela Casiraghi), popularly known as Doddamma, was an Italian-born naturalised Indian Catholic missionary and social worker, known for her medical service in Dharwad, in the south Indian state of Karnataka. [1] She founded a small medical dispensary in Dharwad in 1958, which later grew to become a full-fledged hospital by name, Our Lady of Lourdes Charitable Hospital. [2] [3]
Born in Biassono, Casiraghi joined the Novitiate of Bergamo of the Sisters of Charity at the age of 23. [3] She came to India in 1955 and worked in Mangalore and Hyderabad for three years before founding the medical facility in Dharwad. [1] She then at the time of her vocation decided to take the religious name of Sister Leonarda. A member of the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa congregation, she was the administrator of the hospital and its sister concern, Our Lady of Lourdes School of Nursing, since their inception. [4] She was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri by the Government of India, in 1998, for her services to the society [5]
Casiraghi died on 27 August 2011, at Dharwad. [1]
Bernadette Soubirous, also known as Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some Sisters of Charity communities refer to the Vincentian tradition alone, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The rule of Vincent de Paul for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious institutes for sisters around the world.
Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Virgin Mary. She is venerated under this title by the Roman Catholic Church due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, of which Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "Lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on 18 occasions that year, until the climax revelation in which she introduced herself as: "the Immaculate Conception". On 18 January 1862, the local Bishop of Tarbes Bertrand-Sévère Laurence endorsed the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes.
Maria Aurora Couto was an Indian writer and educator best known for her book Goa: A Daughter's Story and for promoting literature and ideas within Goa and beyond. In addition to her books, she wrote for newspapers and magazine, and also taught English literature at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and Dhempe College of Panjim. She also helped start the DD Kosambi Festival of Ideas in 2008.
Bartolomea Capitanio was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere that she established with Vincenza Gerosa. Capitanio's rather short life was dedicated to the educational needs of children and the poor and she served as a teacher for most of her life while using her order to achieve this aim.
Vincenza Gerosa, born Caterina Gerosa, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere that she founded alongside Bartolomea Capitanio. Gerosa met Capitanio in 1824 and the two consecrated themselves to God in the name of educating children and tending to the poor of the Bergamo area.
Hilda Mary Lazarus CBE, MStJ, MRCS, FRCSE was a Christian missionary and popular gynecologist and obstetrician in India. She was Principal of Andhra Medical College and Superintendent of King George Hospital at Visakhapatnam. She was also the first Indian director of Christian Medical College and Hospital at Vellore.
Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, PHS is a decorated former flight surgeon in the Indian Air Force. She was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force. She is the second woman in the Indian Armed Forces to be promoted to a three-star rank, after Surgeon Vice Admiral Punita Arora.
Sivaramakrishna Padmavati was an Indian cardiologist. She was director of the National Heart Institute, Delhi, and the founder president of the All India Heart Foundation. The institute collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) in training students in preventive cardiology. Padmavati was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in 1992. Padmavati, an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, was the first woman cardiologist in India and established the first cardiac clinic and cardiac catheter lab in India.
Jose Chacko Periappuram is an Indian cardiac surgeon and medical writer who performed the first successful heart transplant in the state of Kerala, India, as well as the first successful heart retransplant in the country. His other achievements include the first beating heart, awake bypass and total arterial revascularization surgeries in the state. Periappuram is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of London. He is the founder and chairman of "Heart Care Foundation", a charitable trust that financially assists poor heart patients. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2011.
St. Francis College for Women is a Catholic minority institution which is located in Begumpet, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
The Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa (SCCG), also known as the Sisters of Maria Bambina (Sisters of Holy Child Mary) had its origins in a house which the people called "Conventino" (small convent) in Lovere, Italy. It was founded by a young woman of 26 named Bartolomea Capitanio in 1832. Bartolomea was helped in her project by Catherine Gerosa, a simple and wealthy lady of Lovere who later took the name of Sister Vincenza, in honor of St. Vincent de Paul.
M. Subhadra Nair is an Indian gynaecologist, medical teacher and social worker, reportedly credited to have assisted over 50,000 child births. The Government of India honoured her, in 2014, with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her services to the field of medicine, the first gynaecologist to receive the Padma award.
Edith Helen Paull was an Indian medical nurse from Uttar Pradesh associated with the Indian Red Cross Society.
Mary Poonen Lukose was an Indian gynecologist, obstetrician and the first female Surgeon General in India. She was the founder of a Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Nagarcoil and the X-Ray and Radium Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, served as the head of the Health Department in the Princely State of Travancore and was the first woman legislator of the state. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri in 1975.
Lucy Oommen was an Indian gynaecologist and the first medical director of Indian origin at the St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi. Born to P. K. Oommen and Kochannamma and sister to Jacob Oommen and Alice, in the south Indian state of Kerala, she graduated in medicine from the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore and joined St Stephen's Hospital Delhi as a surgeon in 1942. She then took charge as superintendent from Dr. Morris.
Shiela Mehra is an Indian gynaecologist, Obstetrician and a director of the department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at Moolchand Hospital, New Delhi. A 1959 graduate of the Lady Hardinge Medical College, she secured the degrees of DRCOG and MRCOG from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, UK. She is a Fellow of the Indian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ICOG) and a recipient of awards such as the Radha Raman Award (1998) and Life Time Achievement Award of the Indian Medical Association (2006). The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri, in 1991.
Dr Malvika Sabharwal is an Indian gynecologist, laparoscopic surgeon and obstetrician at the Nova Specialty Hospitals of the Apollo Healthcare Group and at Jeewan Mala Hospital, New Delhi. The team led by her has been credited with the successful performance of the removal of the largest recorded fibroid through laparoscopic surgery. She leads the Gynae Endoscopy, a team of 140 doctors, involved in endoscopic surgical practices related to gynecology.
Andal Venkatasubba Rao (1894–1969), popularly known as Aandaalamma, was an Indian social worker, educationist and the co-founder of Madras Seva Sadan, a Chennai-based charitable organization working for the welfare of women and children.
Bishop Mathias Sebastião Francisco Fernandes was a Roman Catholic bishop, the first native to be bishop of Diocese of Mysore in Mysore, India. His tenure was marked by the introduction of a number of religious orders offering educational opportunities within the diocese. He was of Goan origin.