The “Sister of Maria Auxiliatrix” came into being through the intuition of Salesian Fr M.C. Antony, who, on 13th May 1976 set up a Pious Union with four girls, involved in social work. The SMA Charism is expressed through the motto “to look after the poor and the abandoned young girls”.

Fr Schoolz, a Salesian with whom Fr M.C. Antony worked, supported the young priest. A rehabilitation centre at Vyasarpadi, in Tamil Nadu in South India was set up for young girls who had been abandoned in poverty.

After the founder`s death on 23 January 1990, the Provincial of Chennai, Fr Vincent Durairaj, appointed Fr Rozario Krishnaraj as ecclesiastical Assistant to the Pious Union

The “Sisters of Maria Auxiliatrix” became a Congregation of Diocesan Right in 1999 approved by Bishop James Masilamony Arul Das, then Archbishop of Madras and Mylapore. His successor, Archbishop Malayappan Chinnappa, sdb, approved the Constitutions, which were reviewed in the light of the ecclesiastical magisterium on 15 December 2005.

Today the “Sisters of Maria Auxiliatrix” number around 110 Sisters, spread over 23 communities in seven diocese of India. Some communities work in with the Salesians. The main SMA activities are formal and informal education for poor girls, evangelisation, orphanages and day centres. Involved as they are in the social sector, the “Sisters of Maria Auxiliatrix” network with other groups in their own areas and in rural areas.

The “Sisters of Maria Auxiliatrix” become the 27th group in the Salesian Family.

Published 29/07/2009