On October 6th, 2009, during the weeklong celebration of the “Centennial of Women at Marquette,” Marquette University dedicated a 6.5-foot bronze statue of Mother Teresa on the west side of the St. Joan of Arc Chapel. Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was born as Anjezë Gonxhe to a Kosovar Albanian family in what now resides in North Macedonia. In the early years of her life, she decided to dedicate herself to religious life and became a missionary. At 18, Anjezë joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland to learn English. A year later, she moved to India, took her religious vows, and changed her name to Mary Teresa after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation of women that would care for: “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” The Missionaries of Charity grew outside of India to have over 4,500 nuns operating in more than 500 missions in over 100 countries as of 2012. The Roman Catholic Church canonized her in 2016. Among the many awards she received were the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and the Pere Marquette Discovery Award from Marquette University (1981). The Kuttemperoor Family donated the statue to the university; the Calcutta-based artist Guatam Pal, who is famous for sculpting more than 50 statues of Mahatma Gandhi all around the world, created it, depicting Mother Teresa wearing her traditional sari and holding an infant. Next to the statue, a plaque summarizes Mother Teresa’s accomplishments and her famous quote: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Read more...

Sojourner Truth’s bronze statue stands outside the emergency domestic violence shelter for women and children, which also bears her name. It was dedicated on the same day as the new campus on April 25th, 2016, in a special ceremony that included a reading of Truth’s famous speech: “Ain’t I A Woman.” Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born into slavery by the name Isabella Baumfree. She was sold and transferred between several masters and sometimes suffered from physical and sexual abuse. In 1826, she escaped to freedom with her infant daughter. Two years later, when she discovered that her son was sold to a new owner in Alabama, she sued the new master and won, becoming the first black woman to file and win a case against a white man in court. In 1843, she answered the spirit of God’s call, changed her name to Sojourner Truth, and became a public preacher and speaker, devoting her life to advocating for abolition and women’s right. Sojourner Family Peace Center was established in 1975 and named after the national heroine Sojourner Truth, who was a victim of violence and abuse and transformed her life to promoting peace, love, and equality for African-Americans and women. It is Wisconsin’s largest nonprofit provider of domestic violence prevention and intervention services. Read more...