Born in Kerala, India, in 1950, Sister Maria was part of a large Catholic family with 8 children. They lived in a village near Mary Giri Hospital, where she first got to know Medical Mission Sisters. "I was admitted for a tonsillectomy, and I saw the Sisters caring for other people. They were very joyous and cheerful about it," she recalls. "Somehow, seeing how committed and joyous they were in their service captured me." She joined our Community in 1968.

Sister Maria's first mission assignment was as a physical therapist at Holy Family Hospital in North India. After 3 years, she was assigned to Kurji Holy Family Hospital in Patna, India, where she founded and headed a physical therapy department. Eventually she began to integrate alternative and complementary therapies into her work.

Recalling an older patient, a man who was very ill with polyneuritis, Sister Maria remembers how she visited and worked with him every day. "Slowly, he started recovering. It took 3 or 4 months. He was completely paralyzed and, at that age, it's difficult to make a recovery. Finally, he was able to walk out of the hospital. It was a kind of second life he had gotten back."

In October, 2003, Sister Maria came to the U.S. to learn more about alternative therapies and energy medicine. She took a course at our Center for Human Integration in Philadelphia, then completed a 6-month program in Holistic Health at the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts in Santa Fe. She returned to South India in late April.