In 1946, she accepted the call from God to start a new order to care for the unloved, unwanted and the poorest of the poor in the slums of Kolkata, her adopted city.
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“She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity”. “Mother Teresa belonged to Kolkata, and she has been declared a saint”.
Remembrance programmes were held at various schools. Teresa was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 owing to her prolonged services.
“When she came this place was a madhouse”.
In an interview with VOA’s Mariama Diallo, Tukiçi said hearing that Mother Teresa was going to be a saint was a very special moment for him. “I have read a lot about her and her teachings and I want to teach and help the poor the way she had helped them in her lifetime”, said Sonali, whose father is a fisherman.
Small of stature, the Albanian nun opened missionaries of charity in over 120 countries aided by several thousand nuns and over one million volunteers, and led an austere life of her own.
With the 16th century basilica of St Peter’s and an azure sky providing the backdrop, the faithful basked in the late summer sun as Francis presided over a ritual mass that has barely changed for centuries.
Crowds flooded the Vatican to celebrate the highly anticipated canonization of Mother Teresa, an event which Catholics and non-Catholics alike had looked forward to since the nun’s death in 1997.
“There were people there from everywhere in the world, Australia, Europe, United States, and we were working in the orphanage helping to feed the children, changing diapers, there must have been 300 kids in this orphanage”, Schaefer said.
In 2002, the Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, reportedly after the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa’s picture.
Prem Kaliea remembers meeting Mother Teresa and how his town welcomed her.
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“She showed we can’t all do everything, but little gestures made with so much love are what’s important”.
