CTS Biographies - Ignatius Press

22M OTHER T ERESAfree will I could have set on fire my own holocaust ... Iwant to be only all for Jesus ... I would give everythingfor Him, even life itself.”In time Sister Teresa was also made Headmistress of StMary’s School. While she was confined (apart from thejourney to and from St Teresa’s school) to the Loretocompound at Entally, she was far from unaware of thesuffering of so many Indians around her in Calcutta. (Infact, it seems that because of the serious situation, she wasallowed to accompany the girls of the Confraternity in someof their visits to the slums and the hospital from 1941.)During the Second World War there occurred theinfamous Bengal Famine. Official figures from theUniversity of Calcutta put the number of victims at threeand a half million. Devastating floods and a cyclone haddestroyed the rice crop.Calcutta was flooded by a tide of starving refugees. AsSister Teresa was teaching the girls at Loreto and StMary’s, the poor displaced, who were literally living onthe streets, were queuing at the city’s soup kitchens. Somany were those who died that the smoke from thefuneral pyres hung continually over the city.As part of the British Empire, India, whether it liked itor not, was involved in the War. Calcutta increasinglybecame a city ready for war as Japanese troops built up inneighbouring Burma. The entire Entally complex wasrequisitioned by the British Army as a military hospital.