Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta
Indian tribal sister who founded the Daughters of St Anne of Ranchi
Who they were
Mother Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta founded the Congregation of the Daughters of St Anne at Ranchi on 26 July 1897 with three companions and spent her life teaching in villages of the forest country, dying of tuberculosis in 1961. AsiaNews gives her birth as 16 June 1878, where the Hagiography Circle record says 2 June 1878.
The miracles
No miracle has been approved. The cause is at its first stage.
Why that counted as sanctity
A diocesan commission was set up in November 2015, the Vatican gave the nihil obstat in June 2016 and Cardinal Telesphore Toppo confirmed the decree opening her cause on 9 August 2016, making her the first tribal woman in India named a Servant of God.
The cause
Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta is named a Servant of God; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: The cause of Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta.
- AsiaNews — Ranchi: Sister Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta, first tribal Servant of God
- Congregation of the Daughters of St. Anne, Ranchi
Checked against the sources listed on 24 September 2026. Corrections welcome.