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A cloistered nun in India has received a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering.
Carmelite Sr Benedicta of the Holy Face, 32, gained the degree from India’s Defence Institute of Advanced Technology.
The institute specialises in training officers of the Indian armed forces and related organisations.
As a lay woman, Sr Benedicta had received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Pune University before entering her doctoral programme at the defence institute.
Her doctoral work focused on scramjet engines, which are used mostly for hypersonic vehicles and also for space vehicles.
Theoretically, such vehicles can drastically reduce the air travel time.
The young engineer had the prospect of a rewarding career before her.
But Sr Benedicta, who was born in Kuwait, felt “called by God” while attending a retreat in Pune.
She told Crux, “I encountered God through my doctoral studies”.
“My family had an inkling that I might join a religious order, but when I took the decision to join a contemplative order they were shocked,” she said.
She went on to say that it was her “love for Jesus”, and the idea that she decided to “give him the first priority in my life over my studies”, which helped her to “encounter the Love of God, who facilitated everything”.
Sr Benedicta joined the cloistered Carmelite convent in Pune, located in India’s Maharashtra state, on February 2, 2015, on the feast of the Presentation.
Her graduation was the first time she set foot outside the convent since this date.
Her prioress gave her permission to attend the defence institute convocation ceremony.
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