Essays

"The other day I dreamed that the gates of heaver... and St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth, there are no slums up here'. These words, once spoken by Mother Teresa, vividly recalls the life of the late Roman Catholic nun and missionary, known as "the Saint of the Gutters". Mother Teresa, originally christened as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 27, 1910. She was the daughter of humble Albanian parents—a grocer and his wife. As a public school student she developed a special interest in overseas missions and, by the age of 12. she felt strongly the call of God. At the age of 18, she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sister of Loreto, an Irish Community who runs of nuns missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as nun. Here, she took the name 'Sister Teresa'. However, in 1946, her life changed forever. After falling ill with suspected tuberculosis, she was sent to the town of Darjeeling the "poorest of the poor", she had said The misery, suffering and poverty that she saw around haunted her day and night. Finally, she realized that her real calling was with the forsaken and with the downtrodden. Thus in 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon Divine Providence made its presence felt. She was soon joined in by voluntary helpers and financial support started pouring in.

Through the years, Mother Teresa's name grew, as did the magnitude of her deeds. On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity" whose primary task was to love and rare for those persons whom nobody was prepared to look after. In 1952, she established d home for the dying poor—the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart)—Home for Dying Destitutes. There, homeless people- uncared for and unacceptable at other institutions—were washed, fed and allowed to die with dignity.

When the walls of the Eastern Europe collapsed, she expanded her efforts to communist countries that had shunned her, embarking on dozens of projects. Even today, the volunteers of the missionaries of Charity provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief works in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees- The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers. By the 1990s, there were over one million co-workers in more than 40 countries.

Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world and she received a number of awards and citations, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for Promotion of International Peace and Understanding (1972). She also received the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay Awards. She was awarded the Bharat Ratna, (he highest civilian award in 1980. In 1996, she was made the honorary citizen of America. She was the first and only person to be featured on an Indian Postage stamp while still alive. Other awards bestowed upon her include Kennedy Prize (1971), the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994).

In 1982, Mother Teresa persuaded Israelis and Palestinians, who were in the midst of a skirmish, to ceasefire long enough to rescue 37 mentally-handicapped patients from a besieged hospital in Beirut, In 1983, Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome, while- visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker. In 1991, after a bout of pneummonia while in Mexico, she had suffered heart problems. In 1991, returning to her home country, she opened a home in Tirana. Albania. She offered to resign her position as head of the order. A secret ballot was carried out, and all the nuns, voted for the Mother to continue. Her own vote was the only vote against herself. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the Missionaries of Charity.

In April 1997, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. Later that year, I  August, she suffered from Malaria, and failure of the left heart ventricle. She underwent heart bypass surgery, but it was clear that her health was declining. On March 13, 1997 she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997, just 9 days after her 87th birthday. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 1,00,000 strong volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These include hospices and homes that provide facilities like soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanges, and schools for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government--an honour normally given to Presidents and Prime Ministers—in gratitude for her .services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and religious communities. The former U. N- Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, for example, said, "She is of the United Nations. She is peace in the world". Nawaz Sharief, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that Teresa was "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purpose. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to humanity." She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October 2003, hence she may be appropriately called Blessed Teresa.