CTS Biographies - Ignatius Press

S ISTER T ERESA, LORETO N UN 25The military were called in on the Saturday to put anend to what had become a bloodbath. The streets ofCalcutta literally ran with human blood, the drainsbecame blocked with human body parts. For some daysthere were eruptions of further violence throughout thecity. Normal human activity ceased. There was onlydeath and destruction.During those days at least 5,000 people were killed inCalcutta, and at least another 15,000 wounded. Over100,000 people fled the city and within the city itselfanother 100,000 were displaced.There were no shops open or deliveries of food or goods.Here was a time if ever there was one when the normalrule of cloister had to give way to necessity.Mother Teresa later related to Eileen Egan, “I went outfrom St Mary’s, Entally. I had three hundred girls in theboarding school and we had nothing to eat.“We were not supposed to go out into the streets, but Iwent anyway. Then I saw the bodies on the streets, stabbed,beaten, lying there in strange positions in their dried blood.“We had been behind our safe walls. We knew thatthere had been rioting. People had been jumping over ourwalls, first a Hindu, then a Muslim.“You see, our compound was between Moti Jihl,which was mainly Muslim then, and Tengra, with thepotteries and tanneries. That was Hindu. We took in eachone and helped him to escape safely.