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Home > About us >> FOUNDRESS Thatipathri Gnanamma, a maker of History! Thatipathri Gnanamma was an ordinary woman of the 19th Century coming from Phirangipuram a simple village in Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh , South India . There was nothing special about the first part of her life! Her later life, however, revealed that she was someone special! She became a maker of history; the history of a Congregation!
As a widow of 37, Gnanamma moved to Kilacheri, a village 60 km from Chennai. Here education for girls was an unimaginable dream. She saw the girls condemned to the darkness of illiteracy! Gnanamma was constantly in touch with these illiterate girls and identified education as a principal means of empowering them. To realize this vision, she started a school for girls in 1863. Her pioneering effort received the support of Rev. Fr.Arokianader, a monk of the monastery of Mary Immaculate and parish priest of Kilacheri. To continue this important mission of educating young girls and to further expand it to other areas, she started in 1874 in Kilacheri, a Religious Congregation for women, known as " The Sisters of St.Anne, Chennai ." Our Foundress Gnanamma was a daring and caring woman of the 19th century. Though she was a widow and an ordinary lay woman, she created history by founding our Congregation of St. Anne's, Chennai, with the main thrust of liberating women from unjust social practice of discrimination. We, the daughters of such a pioneering woman, realize our call in the 21st century to be faithful to her Charism by being daring and caring women of today. It is a joy for me to share my experiences and reflections on the title, "We, the daring and Caring women of today". |
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