The Indian city of Kolkata today will mark the memory of a diminutive nun, born 100 years ago and half a world away, who became a global symbol of compassion for her work with the sick and destitute.
Mother Teresa visited Malta twice in 1967 and in 1976. During her last visit Mother Teresa addressed the Sixth World Congress of Lasallian Federations at the then Grand Hotel Verdala, Rabat.
Mother Teresa was welcomed, among others, by A. Miceli Farrugia who was the first chairman of the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa on the island. Contacted yesterday to give a message to mark the event, Mrs Miceli Farrugia said there wasn’t a better message than the one which Mother Teresa used to convey: “Jesus loves you, you love others as Jesus loves you. Jesus is in every person you meet.”
Mrs Miceli Farrugia recalled a particular meeting with Mother Teresa when she, together with co-workers members attended the 1988 General Chapter meeting in Paris.
Mrs Micelli Farrugia said with the group there was a certain Vittorio Filett, in his early 30s who, for many years, was undecided whether to marry or become a priest. Mother Teresa, while petting him on his shoulders told him: “Go and be a good priest” ... which he did.
Mother Teresa, the Angel of Mercy, a Nobel peace prize winner and Roman Catholic saint-in-waiting, was born on August 26, 1910 to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje in Macedonia.
As Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she arrived in India in 1929 and two years later took her first religious vows as a nun and adopted the name under which she would achieve worldwide recognition.
Today’s anniversary will be marked in Kolkata, New Delhi, eastern Europe and even New York City’s Times Square, where giant billboards will glow blue and white – the colour of the habit worn by the Missionaries of Charity order which she founded.
Special memorial prayers will be said in Kolkata and Indian Railways will launch a new Mother Teresa Express Train with the coaches painted in blue.
The city is also inaugurating a Mother Teresa international film festival with documentaries and biopics depicting her life and work.
Mother Teresa began her missionary work with the poor in Kolkata in 1948 and the teeming east Indian metropolis remained her base until her death in September 1997.
Her grave in her order’s headquarters in Kolkata has since become a pilgrimage site.
For all the reverence with which her name and memory are treated, Mother Teresa was not without her critics.
One her most vocal detractors was the British-born author Christopher Hitchens who, in a 1994 documentary called Hell’s Angel, accused her of being a political opportunist who failed those in her care and contributed to the misery of the poor with her strident opposition to contraception and abortion.
Questions have also been raised over the Missionaries of Charity’s finances, as well as conditions in the order’s hospices where there has been resistance to introducing modern hygiene methods.
The Archbishop of Kolkata, Lucas Sircar, said the sisters had struggled over the past decade.
“Mother Teresa had the charisma and compassion to carry the order all over the world,” said Archbishop Sircar.
“When she was alive, everything was under her control. After her death, the void was felt everywhere,” he said.
Luigi Vaghi, an Italian volunteer who came to work in Nirmal Hriday, the first home Mother Teresa set up in Kolkata to nurse the sick and dying, said he had left after becoming disillusioned.
“She talked of compassion, love and mercy. These virtues are missing in the home,” said Mr Vaghi, without elaborating.
Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003, after being fast-tracked by the Vatican, but her elevation to sainthood is still awaiting proof of a medical miracle.
During the beatification process, the Vatican called on Mr Hitchens to play the ancient role of “devil’s advocate” and present arguments against her being blessed.
A series of Mother Teresa’s letters published in 2007 also caused some consternation among her admirers as it became clear that she had suffered crises of faith for most of her life and even doubted God’s existence.
“Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear,” she wrote to one confidant, Reverend Michael Van Der Peet, in 1979.
Anniversary events have also been planned for today in the three neighbouring Balkan states of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo – all of which lay claim to a slice of the Mother Teresa legend.
Factbox
Fact file on Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa, known as “the Saint of the Gutters” for her work among the poor, dying and destitute in India and across the world.
Name: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, also known as Mother Teresa
Born: August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia
1928: Decides to become a missionary at the age of 18
1929: Arrives in India. Begins her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains.
1931: Takes her first vows as a nun and chooses the name of Teresa.
1946: Hears the “call within the call” to work for the poor
1948: Begins missionary work with the poor in Kolkata
1950: Receives Vatican’s permission to start her own order
1951: Granted Indian citizenship
1952: Opens her first home for the dying and destitute in Kalighat.
1962: Receives Indian and Philippine government awards for her work
1975: Celebrates 25 years of Missionaries of Charity
1979: Wins Nobel Prize for Peace for humanitarian work
1980: Given India’s highest civilian honour, the “Jewel of India”.
1983: Taken to hospital in Rome with serious heart condition
1990: Resigns as Superior General of Missionaries of Charity due to failing health but re-elected
March 13, 1997: Successor Sister Nirmala elected Superior General
September 5, 1997: Dies in Mother House at the age of 87
September 13, 1997: Given a state funeral which is attended by then US First Lady Hillary Clinton
2003: Beatified by Pope John Paul II, an interim stage before being named a saint
2007: Private letters published showing she suffered crises of faith for most of her life and even doubted God’s existence.