Sister Rita Perera by Dr. Wilfred Perera and Others
Mother Theresa of Sri Lanka
SISTER RITA PERERA
She entered the nunnery at the age of 19 in 1953 and had her training at SHC Galle. She was a science teacher in the school. She fell ill in 1955 with a peptic ulcer of the stomach and was treated by Dr. P.R. Anthonis, the well known surgeon who admitted her to the nuns’ ward at General Hospital, Colombo. At that time the treatment of peptic ulcer was by surgery and she had a gastro-entorostomy done.
She developed complications and started vomiting blood for which blood transfusion was given and she had a second surgery to stop the bleeding. Ultimately within one year she had further surgery for the third time, ending up with doing a partial gastrectomy, removing 2/3rd of her stomach. After that I went to UK for my postgraduate studies in Liverpool, and she went to Dublin in Ireland to do her science degree. There she fell ill and was admitted to a hospital in Dublin and I had to fly to Dublin and discuss with the doctors there regarding all her surgeries and to manage her without doing any operations. I came back in 1960 and she also returned and was a science teacher at the Galle Convent. She was later transferred to the Matara convent to teach there and came back to Galle.
She was again admitted to the General Hospital Colombo with intestinal obstruction due to bowel adhesions following the previous operations. She was operated again for the fourth time by Prof. R.A. Nawaratna and recovered. I was appointed to Galle General Hospital as a consultant in 1968. She used to visit me at the Galle hospital and discuss the problems she was facing in the convent. I advised her to leave the nunnery which she did in 1969. She came back home and remained with my mother.
She was very close to the Jesuits in Galle, especially Fr. Chianase and he brought a proposal of marriage from one Marcus Perera from Kalutara, and she got married at the age of 37 in December 1971 at St. Mary’s Church Dehiwela.
Marcus was employed at Associated Motorways at Kalutara. They lived in a house on St. Sebastian road at Katukurunda. They had no children. She however fell ill again, this time with glaucoma of one eye. It was too advanced by the time I got her seen by an eye surgeon in Colombo and they had to remove her eye and give her a glass eye.
She again fell ill with pulmonary TB and stayed in my house for nearly three months. Marcus died in 1982 and and she decided to do social service work and went for advice to the then young parish priest at Payagala Fr. Malcolm Ranjith, who advised her to visit Nagoda hospital and be of service to the poor patients there. This she did very diligently in 1982, till one day a leper approached her and she put up a cadjan shed and looked after him, dressing his wounds and giving him shelter and food. She named her house Marcsri combining the two names Marcus and Rita and it was later registered as a social service institution named” Marcsri Sarana Seva Niwahana” in 1983.
She appealed to the then Archbishop of Colombo Nicholas Marcus Fernando for financial help to construct a permanent building to house the many inmates who came to her for help. The Archbishop appointed Fr. Julian Thissera who was the parish priest in Katukurunda full time to help Rita, as he was also very keen on working with the poor.
As a medical man I am amazed that she lived up to 81 years and did this tremendous work, which no one in this country has ever done, with all her illnesses. She did all these with implicit trust and faith in the providence of God Almighty, single-handed as a one woman show for the past 32 years.
Her love for the unwanted, mentally retarded and disabled children who were dumped on her doorstep by mothers, was great. She gave them an education. Many of them have been given in marriage and she has built homes for them. Many philanthrophists from Sri Lanka and many from abroad have helped her over the years to continue this work .
Her final obsequies on the 28th afternoon was something that I had never seen in my life for an ordinary laywoman like Rita, where five Bishops, the Cardinal, Archbishop, two Archbishops Emeritus and two other Bishops concelebrated a Eucharistic celebration with a large number of priests, nuns and laity who filled the Marcsri Niwasa. Three other Bishops from Galle, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura paid her homage and conducted services earlier.
My sister Rita had implicit trust in God Almighty to run the home when she is gone. I am quite certain that she will intercede from heaven to continue this tremendous service to humanity . Her motto was “ What you do to the least of my brethren, you do it unto me”.
-Wilfred Perera
Easter miracle at Marcsri
In the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ tells us how the despised and marginalised Samaritan went to the aid of a dying man in contrast to two priests who passed by and went on to conduct a religious ritual.
The Marcsri homes for the lame, the blind, the deaf, the orphans and others who are abandoned by society, are truly places where people come alive through the power of love. Last Sunday we visited the main Marcsri home at Katukurunda and if proof was needed that Christ is alive, the Marcsri homes provided it in full and overflowing measure.
If the Marcsri homes are a miracle of love, so is the life story of a frail former nun and teacher who started this mission for the poorest of the poor. Marcsri now runs eighteen homes for about hundred and fifty orphaned children and six hundred other people. All the children had been found abandoned on beaches or bus stands, roadsides or railway stations and hospitals. Since there were no earthly fathers or mothers, the children are seen by Marcsri as direct gifts from God. They are given basic physical needs, psychological needs of love and care and spiritual needs.
As we sat with the humble, graceful and soft-spoken Rita Perera on a quiet Palm Sunday afternoon, she told us the story that was more powerful and inspiring than most sermons we hear from pulpits. Born on April 11, 1934, Rita hailed from a highly respected family in Galle with her parents belonging to the noble profession of dedicated teachers. Of the seven children, five boys and two girls- two became doctors, one a Jesuit priest, one a chartered accountant and another a High Court judge. Like Rita, the other children though they rose to high posts, were committed to a simple and humble life style.
At 18, Rita joined the order of the Sisters of Charity and served as a nun for fifteen years. She continued her studies in Dublin for her B.Sc. But since she had to undergo more than fifteen surgical operations for stomach and eye disorders, she left the cloistered order due to ill health. She taught at St. Aloysius' College, Galle, for a few years and then married Marcus Perera on December 1, 1971 and came to live in Katukurunda, Kalutara.
Rita and her husband were a devoted couple though childless. She taught at Holy Family Convent, Kalutara for about three years. But then tragedy struck again. Though it was Rita who was very ill, her husband Marcus died suddenly on March 5,1982 leaving her shattered. For the first year of her bereavement she mourned like any other Sri Lankan widow. Life seemed to hold nothing more for her.
If Rita Perera's first calling was her ordination as a nun in 1953, then the second and higher calling was still to come. Physically still ailing and emotionally heart broken over the sudden death of her husband in her arms, it was in this weakness of Rita that the strength of God was to manifest most powerfully to make her the Mother Theresa of Sri Lanka.
It began in a small way, with little drops of water coming to form the ocean of love that is seen in the eighteen Marcsri homes today. Rita Perera first visited the Nagoda hospital patients who were lonely and abandoned because they had no visitors. She took home-cooked meals with tea and betel for them but more importantly she gave them compassionate affection, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
She then collected money and presented wheel chairs to three such abandoned patients. But, Rita herself was further shattered by ill health and looked more frail than ever before. Indeed when she asked her parish priest for an assistant to begin a ministry for the healing of the lonely and abandoned, he had justifiable reservations as to who would last longer than whom.
One day in 1983, a man who was discharged from hospital and had nowhere to go, sought this ministering angel. So with a mat and gunny under a porch at her Katukurunda house she began the first Marcsri home. One patient led to another and another and more destitute people came in. No one was turned away. Making a cadjan shed in her small garden, she provided care to these marginalised and rejected people.
She sold her bangles, earrings and other valuables to buy food, medicine and clothing for the patients. With each new arrival the cadjan shed was extended. Rita herself washed, fed, cleaned and gave compassionate care to the patients and continues to do so even today not only in the main Marcsri home but in all the homes which she visits regularly.
Rita Perera started without any project or plans but her mission has grown into a massive miracle ministry.
Yet she has no big plans for the future. She prefers to live from moment to moment, from day to day, trusting and depending on the Lord to provide shelter, food, clothing, medicine and tender care to hundreds of people daily.
Not one cent is charged from any patient, though voluntary donations in cash or kind are accepted.
"Seek first the kingdom of God and its justice and everything you need will be provided to you". The promise of Jesus has come powerfully true in the life of Rita.
She gives all the glory to the Lord and is ready still as she was at the beginning to do whatever the Lord tells her to do.
"Even if the Lord tells me today to leave the Marcsri homes and go elsewhere for a mission, I am ready to let go of everything and follow the Lord," Rita told us.
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Rita Perera
Mother Teresa of Sri Lanka
“I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was naked and you clothed me; I was homeless and you gave me shelter. Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters that you do unto me.”
For more than three decades, Rita Perera not only read these words of Jesus in the Last Judgment, she also lived them.
Sister Rita, as she was affectionately known, passed away peacefully on May 26, 2015 at the age of 81 to go to her eternal reward in a land where she would not grow weary and old and where there will be no poor or rich people but all equal as children of God.
Known as the Mother Teresa of Sri Lanka and like Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, Rita Perera was laid to rest at the MarcSri cemetery at Katukurunda in Kalutara. Also buried there are scores of people whom Sister Rita had taken care of. They were buried there because they were the poorest of the poor, the destitute who had no family or other friends to even give them a decent burial.
Marc Sri Saranaseva Nivahana, a network of welcome centres, was founded by Sister Rita 32 years ago. Rita had been a nun, but during the 1960s she had had no option but to revoke her vows because of serious health reasons.
After a few years, she married Marcus Perera. They built a house in Kalutara and called it Marc Sri. Marcus died in 1982. However, the spiritually enlightened and courageous Rita found strength in the Lord and turned this calamity into a blessing. Since they had no children, the Lord then called Rita to a mission with a vision. In response, she began visiting hospitals to see mainly the abandoned people, those whom no one came to see and no one was there to take care of. She first took them homemade food, tea or coffee for them. As the Lord gradually gave her a broader vision and more resources, she bought three wheelchairs for three paralysed and abandoned patients. She saw in them the Abandoned Christ, which many scholars say is the most important and the most powerful manifestation of the Lord.
The next step in Rita’s Journey took place, as the Lord works so often, in a mysterious way.
On January 29, 1983, a leper, who had been released from hospital, came to her house asking for a place to stay as he had nowhere to go. Remembering the words “I was homeless and you gave me shelter,” she welcomed this man. With that one small leap, the Lord took her to a giant step to follow him into the deep and to believe in falling rain, even where she traversed deserts dry.
From then onwards an increasing number of people, trapped in the slavery of poverty, found a home at Marc Sri. To her the Lord brought disabled and crippled children, the elderly, the men and the women. She had no rooms or beds for them so they all slept on the floor.
Jesus Christ is not merely experienced by going to Church or reading theological books. Rita believed that He is experienced when we love one another as He loves us, the one great commandment as told by the Lord in the immortal parable of the Good Samaritan. Rita’s one Marc Sri multiplied to accommodate more than a thousand destitute people, including mentally handicapped or deformed children in more than 10 homes of compassion, in various towns of the Archdiocese.
The daily expenses were met with donations from well-wishers both here and overseas through a trust fund known as “Friends of MarcSri”.
When Sister Rita’s work here was done, and after she had run her race well, her precious Lord took her hand and led her home.
- A Friend
The joy of caring and sharing
The phone call in November from abroad from Shevanthie Goonesekera, the daughter of a friend, invited me to a children's party to be held in Sri Lanka on December 19. I was delighted, not because the party was to be held at a five-star or super-luxury hotel or a palatial residence, but at the Grace Kumari Lama Nivasa, Katukurunda, a haven (or heaven on earth it seems) to 99 children in need of love and care.
The party was being hosted by Shevanthie and her brother Eshan, who were bringing goodies from the UK, where they are resident, having been born there.
The Lama Nivasa is one of 16 homes set up by Ms. Rita Perera or "Sister Rita", as she is affectionately known. These homes are for elders and the mentally and physically retarded, with one for the rehabilitation of lepers. Both men and women have found shelter in these homes which are located in Katukurunda, Wadduwa, Paiyagala, Beruwela, Kotugoda and Divulapitiya. From the time the first home was set up in 1983, Fr. Julian Tissera has been of immense help in running them.
Dedicated to the memory of Princess Grace of Monaco (or Grace Kelly, the popular film star of yesteryear who married Prince Rainer, the ruler of the Principality of Monaco), the Lama Nivasa is largely funded by the Princess Grace Foundation of that country, and is home to 44 boys and 55 girls. It is managed by young volunteers who are "Ammas" to the children. They are simple, friendly and affectionate. What is most astonishing to visitors is the quality of the management, as can be seen in the order, discipline and disposition of the children (they seem to be healthy, active and affable) in spite of the fact that these helpers do not hold degrees or diplomas in child psychology, child care, sociology or any other nor have had a training in this field.
Getting back to the party, I had the opportunity of taking three friends who also wished to experience the joy of caring and sharing. We were accompanied by Uncle Cyril, uncle of the duo, who had helped considerably with "backstage" requirements. The duo and their mother had been in Katukurunda in advance, to organise the event.
When we arrived at the home shortly after noon, Eshan was on the verandah painting the face of a little boy seated on his lap, while the other children awaited their turn. Some had skipped their lunch in their desire to have their faces done. At least 80 faces were painted by Eshan.
Shevanthie was arranging the eats and the gifts, with the help of their cousin Dharshan, as Fr. Julian went around making sure all was in order. Then came Sr. Rita with three-year-old Dulanjali who had no arms and also seemed unable to walk. Little Dulanjai, who had been taken into the home as an infant, seemed to be everybody's favourite.
Then the party started. There were games....musical chairs with a difference...dancing, with some children even somersaulting instead of walking to the music, "passing the parcel" at high speed. Before they got too hot and tired, the winners were given their prizes and the children's concert followed.
Two talented girls in their early teens opened the show with a dance, followed by two more dances to the tunes of toe-tapping Sinhala pops by several groups of younger children who had been trained by the first two performers. Then came the eats...a variety of cakes, sandwiches and biscuits followed by soft drinks arranged on tables beautifully done up with X'mas decorations from abroad. The hosts and helpers distributed X'mas caps and bon-bons and the children were thrilled to wear their "crowns" and pull the bon-bons. Later they were served with "chirpy chips".
Then it was time for the highlight of the day — gifts for all. Gifts which had been specially selected by Shevanthie and Eshan according to the ages and sex of the children, wrapped beautifully and labelled by name. A number of toys had also been donated by their sister Sweenie. Uncle Cyril played the role of Santa and the children walked up to the stage one by one....the smaller ones being helped by Fr. Julian.
One had to be there to believe the joy of the children as they unwrapped their presents. Time for more sweets...smarties and toffees to restore any energy they may have lost!...and finally giant bunches of gaily-coloured balloons to be tossed into the air for them to run, catch and play to their hearts' content.
The party ended...the children were in ecstacy, perhaps it was one the happiest days in their lives. The helpers too beamed with joy.
Shevanthie, Eshan and their mother Violet, their unfailing prop, no doubt had the greatest satisfaction. If only we had more young people of their calibre, would not the world be a happier place? At a time when we the older folks particularly, tend to feel disillusioned when we see the selfishness, greed and deceit of the "haves" especially, it is heartening to know that young lionhearts who care and give themselves to others still exist. That is indeed a glimmer of hope for the future!
-Therese Perera
Achieving a great feat with her feet
Physically disabled from birth, and raised at the ‘Marc-Sri Saranaseva Nivahana’, a shelter for the poor and the abandoned, this is the story of Dulanjali Ariyathilaka who has big dreams for her future having passed the O/Levels �with flying colours
By Tharooshie Mahahewage
When the O’L results were released last week, ending months of stressful waiting for thousands of students around the country, it was a moment of great joy for many but perhaps most of all for a brave young girl who had faced insurmountable odds to pass the exam with flying colours….born without hands, she writes with her feet.
Let’s go back to 1995. A couple expecting their third child are hopeful. They have been told this birth might have complications, but they still look forward to the baby with all the love in their hearts. Both parents work at a prominent teaching hospital down-south where, the husband is an X-ray machine operator.
When the baby is born she has no hands. Her legs too are only half developed. The distraught mother develops severe post natal depression and faced with the difficulties of caring for his sick wife and two other children, the father decides to bring the baby to the only place he knows will take good care of her; ‘Marc-Sri’ in Kalutara.
Dulanjali: Embracing technology like any other teenager. Pix by Athula Devapriya
“I’ve been at Marc-Sri since I was one week old. When I was brought here, they hadn’t even registered me as they didn’t expect me to survive long. I was weak and small. But I made it through somehow. Ever since I remember, this has been my home,” says Dulanjali Ariyathilaka, the little baby who has grown to be a 17-year- old with undoubted potential- her immensely creditable results- 6As, 1B and 2Cs.
“We found out the results were out through the news. Some of my brothers (in the orphanage) saw it and came and told me. I was very sick then, down with fever so couldn’t even get out of bed. Then they checked my results for me. That is when I found out that I had passed very well. I’ve got six A’s, 1 B and 2 C’s. Though I was sure I will pass and get more than 4 A’s, I was very happy to know my results. I didn’t expect to get an A for Sinhala,” she adds with a bright smile.
Dulanjali had come to Katukurunda Roman Catholic College at Grade 3. Until then she had been at Kalamulla Roman Catholic College. She studies in the Sinhala medium and as the school doesn’t have a special education centre works alongside the other children.
“My friends are very helpful. They have to compete with me because most of the time I finish my work before them. It’s a mixed school and the boys in my class carry my wheelchair with me on it when we have to climb staircases. Since the wheelchair is shorter than the chairs, I have my own pink primary desk since I was small. Some of my friends too have got good results so even if we have fun we do our studies well, and I’m very happy for them. My friends are great,” she says.
In these times of heavy tuition schedules, Dulanjali is a rare exception. “I only got a teacher for Commerce. Other than that I didn’t go for a single tuition class. My mum (Ms. Rita) helps me with maths and science. I find maths hard. I’m glad I have got a C for it,” she says.
When she was nine, Dulanjali was reunited with her biological parents. It was the time of the tsunami and the hospital where both her parents worked was where many bodies had been brought to be identified. “That is what caused my parents to come looking for me,” says Dulanjali matter of factly. It was a difficult time emotionally she says, meeting her birth mother for the first time. “I told her I already have a mother. I told her she can’t be my mother. But after a while I could forgive. They (her parents) come and visit me often. I might even go to Galle for New Year. They were very happy when I told them my results. I have two elder sisters, you know,” she says.
Founder of Marc-Sri, Rita Perera, 73, better known as “Sister Rita”, was a religious sister, but during the 1960’s she was forced to revoke her vows due to serious health reasons.� She later married Marcus Perera and the couple built their house in Kalutara, which they called “Marc-Sri”. They lived a happy life, until Marcus died in 1982.� Rita did not yield to sadness, but began to try to alleviate her pain by going to visit people in hospitals who had no one to take care of them.�That was when she thought of converting her own house to a haven for those who had nothing to call a ‘home’.
‘Marc-Sri Saranaseva Nivahana’, is a centre to care for and shelter the poor and the abandoned. Hailing from a family of six that had produced many prominent personalities in the island, like leading gynaecologist, the late Prof. Wilfred Perera, Fr. Mark Perera, well known as a priest, teacher and counsellor, Daisy Pathirana, who taught at St. Aloysius College, Galle, for more than 35 years, Newton Perera, a leading chartered accountant, late Joe Perera, a former High Court judge, and the youngest, Dr. Kitty Perera, Rita is lovingly called Amma by the children of the home.
The other most important person in the home is ‘Papa’ or Fr. Julian Tissera who is the chaplain of Marc-Sri and has been a part of the organisation since its inception. �“Dulanjali started writing with her feet all on her own when she was only two or three years old. After we saw what she wanted to do we helped her develop her ability. Her handwriting is very neat,” says Ms. Rita.
“Dulanjali is a very helpful and friendly girl. She’s very concerned about the home and everyone here. She keeps the family spirit going. Very rarely, does she get depressed. She doesn’t talk with anyone other than me about her problems. She has her special book where she writes how she feels. It tells about her dreams, how much she wants to be normal, how many things she could have done if she could run and jump like other girls her age. It makes me sad to see her sitting in her wheel chair all day. But there’s nothing I can do, I feel so helpless.”
“She’s a determined girl. She knows what’s right and what’s wrong. She’s also, just like all the other children like her who are here, very happy and content. I do everything to make them happy. My staff and I are dedicated towards that end. This has become my life’s mission now,” Ms. Rita adds.
Dulanjali has big dreams for the future. “I want to go forward in graphic designing. I’m already doing a six month course but I want to establish my future in that area. I’ll be doing my Advanced Level in commerce as it’s good to have an idea about businesses as well,” she says.
Just like other urban teenagers she loves music and singing. “Especially hip-hop music,” she beams adding that her favourite artist is Eminem. These days her favourite band is ‘One Direction’. “I’m a huge fan. I also read a lot of books and watch movies. I’m on Facebook as well because it’s vacation time.”
Life is not easy but she is blessed with courage and determination and a loving environment. “Sometimes I wonder what I would have been like if I was a normal person. But then I never regret who I am. If I was normal, I would have taken things around me for granted. Now, with my disability, I have to try hard to survive, compete with others my age who do the same things I find hard to do so easily. Sometimes things are more difficult. But I keep up, and I don’t want to give up.
I can’t change anything so I will try harder and go on.”�“It’s great to be here and I’ll always be here. This is my home,” she says of Marc-Sri. “I have a great mother and father. I have lots of brothers and sisters, all the helpers are my uncles and aunts and we are a big family. I have wonderful friends, kind and helpful teachers and principal. I think I have all I want. I have everything a girl could ask for. I’m very grateful.”
The Marcsri Centre, where among the poor and sick "one encounters Jesus"
Kalutara (AsiaNews) - There is a house in Sri Lanka where sick people, young and old, find love and comfort in the care of an ordinary woman, and the spiritual help of a Catholic priest. It is the "Marcsri Saranaseva Nivahana", a network of welcome centres, which marked its 25th anniversary on January 29th. The occasion was celebrated with a Mass in Kalutara, 50 km from Colombo, where the first "Marcsri" house stands. The Mass was celebrated by archbishop emeritus Marcus Fernando, Harold Anthony, bishop of Galle, Fr Anselm Croos, and Fr Julian Tissera, the chaplain for Marcsri.
Among the religious, laity, and sick people with their families, there was also the founder of this initiative, Rita Perera, 73, known as "Sister Rita". Rita was a religious sister, but during the 1960's she was forced to revoke her vows for serious health reasons. After a few years she married Marcus Perera, and although they never had children, "they were a very devoted couple", according to those who knew them. They built their house in Kalutara, and called it "Marcsri". They lived a happy life, until Marcus died in 1982. But Rita did not yield to sadness, and she began to try to alleviate her pain by going to visit abandoned people in the hospitals, the ones who had no one to take care of them.
"I brought them homemade food, coffee", Rita tells AsiaNews, "and once I took up a collection and was able to buy three wheelchairs for the patients". On January 29th, 1983, a man who had been released from the hospital came to her house asking for hospitality. "He had nowhere to go", she explains. She welcomed him, and from that day forward an increasing number of needy people, of all ages, found a home at Marcsri. "Children, the elderly, adults - I had nowhere left to put them, and I began sleeping on the floor along with them", Rita recounts. "I made my home a refuge for the least fortunate".
Rita takes care to emphasise that in her work she was "helped by Divine Providence", but was also by constant support from Fr Julian Tissera, who since 1989 has been the spiritual guide for the patients and has taken care of organising "discipline in the various houses". Rita praises his ability to help "not with words, but with actions"; with his presence, he demonstrates that "Jesus is not encountered in theology books, but in the ordinary actions of every day, in helping your neighbour where you live".
Today the "Marcsri" numbers about 800 patients of every ethnic and religious group, and has 23 houses in various places on the island. The daily expenses are met with donations from Sri Lanka and from outside the country. There is a fund called "Friends of Marcsri" that accepts donations. "It is incredible", Rita says, "I don't even know myself how we succeed in covering all of the expenses - travel, food, medicine, marriages, funerals - but there are many good people to help us; for years the electricity bill has been paid by one generous donor". There are also many doctors who volunteer their time to help these unfortunate patients, like Dr Seneth Samaranayake, who instructs many of the Marcsri volunteers at his clinic near the main house.
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