MOTHER TERESA

MOTHER TERESA

            August 26, 2010, the birth centenary of Mother Teresa will be marked with celebration and thanksgiving in many parts of the world. This nun her unique brand of faith and compassion was able to alleviate loneliness, hunger and destitution by reaching out through a worldwide mission to millions of abandoned, homeless and dying destitute, irrespective of their religion, caste, faith or denomination

            Born in skopje, a city in the folds of the Balkans, then as now a crucible of many religions and races, she was the youngest of three children of deeply Catholic Albanian parents. Her father died when she was seven, her mother struggled to feed her family and turned increasingly to the local church for spiritual sustenance young Agnes encountered uncertainty and adversity early in life.

            Agnes had decided at the age of 14, to serve as a missionary, not in her local church, but in faraway India. A new life opened in Calcutta in 1929. She had joined the Loreto order as a novice aged 19.

            The early milestones lay in recognition with in her adopted country-first by the legendary chief minister of west Bengal Dr B.C Roy, to be followed by national recognition when Jawaharlal Nehru was instrumental in India awarding her the padma Shri in 1962.

            By 1965, she had set up a vast net work of service across India. She saw need everywhere.  Mother Teresa set up a multinational organisation that spread to 123 countries by the time she died. She was the most powerful woman in the world once.

Prof. John Kurakar