Mother Baptista couldn’t stand or sleep peacefully when she saw people begging without fingers or feet having frightening sight as their faces, so she joined with Fr. Bernard to care about them. Her heart was filled with love and compassion for them.
She had her personal ambition of letting them know of their self-identity as being humans on earth.
She said, “Leprosy work is not merely medical relief. It is transforming frustrations of life into joy of dedication, and personal ambition into selfless service.”
Thus, she along with S.J.S sisters worked hard for all their basic rights and succeeded in bringing them back into the main stream of the society. This was done by way of educating them, employing them, and keeping them in a healthy environment in housing colonies constructed by her.
Mother Baptista’s love of the lepers was a very special one. Even today many of these people are suffering from discrimination and most are being expelled from society at large.
It was Mother Baptista’s greatest wish to show that ‘these people are valuable’. She gave them new confidence in life as the lepers felt useless and worthless.
S.J.S sisters are continuing in Mother Baptista’s footsteps of living in love and serving with gladness of heart.