On this day, a group of seven Loreto sisters and five postulants, all in their 20s, under the leadership of Delphine Hart, left Dublin in Ireland for India. They were to found Loreto in India after landing at Babughat in Calcutta on December 29, 1841.

George Henry Backhaus, a Catholic priest who was working in India, was given the responsibility of finding someone from the community to set up an educational institution in India. Backhaus approached Mother Teresa Ball of Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham, Ireland, who sent the Loreto team to India.

Among those who arrived were Mother Delphine Hart, Mother Teresa Mons, Mother Martina McCann, Sisters Alexia Egan, Benigna Egan, Veronica Fox, Gabriel Doyle, Miss Isabella Hart (Mother Delphine’s sister) and Miss McDonough, who received the habit as Sister Xaveria on her deathbed at the end of the year. They had arrived in a ship named The Scotia.

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