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Mother still beacon of hope, 10 years on

The destitute and orphaned of Kolkata joined in a candle-light tribute to the 'Saint of the Gutters' on her tenth death anniversary on Wednesday.

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KOLKATA: As the infirm, destitute and orphaned of this metropolis joined in a candle-light tribute to the 'Saint of the Gutters' on her tenth death anniversary on Wednesday, it was clear that Mother Teresa remains the beacon of hope for many. 

The Missionaries of Charity (MoC), the order of self-effacing nuns in blue-bordered white saris founded by her, organised a solemn function to remember her and her work among the dying, the diseased, the orphans and the poor.

Floral tributes were paid at Mother's tomb at MoC headquarters on Acharya Girish Chandra Bose Road and special prayers were held.

"Inmates of Mother Teresa'a homes held a candle-light procession very early in the morning. Archbishop of Calcutta Henry D'souza conducted a special mass at 6 am," Sister Christie, spokesperson of MoC said.   

"There will also be a multi-faith prayer meeting at Mother House. Another prayer meeting has been organised by Catholic nuns, besides prayer meetings at St Teresa's Church and St Mary's Church in the evening," she added.
 
Special prayer meetings have also been organised by Nirmal Hriday, the home for the destitute and the dying, and at Sishu Bhavan, a home for orphaned children.

Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian nun who came to Kolkata in 1929. She served the poorest of the poor, set up schools for street children and medical clinics for slum-dwellers.

In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity. When she died on September 5, 1997, the MoC had nearly 4,000 nuns and ran around 600 orphanages, homeless shelters and clinics around the world.

Today, the organisation founded by her has remained committed to its work and opened new centres, taking the number of MoC homes to 757 worldwide with a sizeable presence in nations in strife.

"We have gone to 14 new countries in the last decade, taking our presence to 134 nations in all. The new countries included Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Togo, Djibouti, Mali, Israel, Thailand, Chad, New Zealand, Finland, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Norway," Sister Nirmala, Superior General of MoC, said, adding that 66 new houses were opened all over the world.

Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 after the Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture.

Monica Besra said a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumour. Under Catholic tradition, a second miracle is needed for her to become a saint.

Meanwhile, the magnetism of the Mother endures. People from across the world keep pouring into the spartan headquarters of MoC on AJC Bose Road in central Kolkata, where Mother lies interred, to offer their services at homes run by the MoC and derive spiritual satisfaction by tending to the sick and the destitute.

"There is poverty here but there are smiles too," said Susanne Torrano, a 31-year-old teacher, speaking for a group of volunteers from Spain who are tending the old, infirm and diseased at Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart), the centre first founded by Mother Teresa in 1952 at Kalighat in south Kolkata.
 
"Mother is hugely popular in Spain. Coming here and working with the MoC is a huge experience. We are overwhelmed and we consider ourselves lucky to be here," added Ada, 49 and Isabel, 33, both from Madrid.

"We were touring south India and were in Bangalore when we decided to come to Kolkata and work here at Mother's centre. We feel privileged to be here," Isabel said.

Gopal Das, an inmate of Nirmal Hriday, seemed happy on the eve of Mother's death anniversary.

"We had nobody to look after us," said Das, who suffers from a malignant tumour in his stomach. "We would have been dead by now had we not come here. We can only express our gratitude to the sisters.
 
"I have children but they are so poor themselves that they cannot take care of us," said Das, one among the 120 inmates of the house.

 

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