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http://in.reuters.com/article/pope-motherteresa-idINKCN11745N
After lifetime with the poor, Mother Teresa speeds to sainthood
By Crispian Balmer | VATICAN CITY
Affectionately called the "saint of the gutters" during her lifetime, Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be made an official saint of the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, just 19 years after her death.
A Nobel peace prize winner, Mother Teresa was one of the most influential women in the Church's 2,000-year history, acclaimed for her work amongst the world's poorest of the poor in the slums of Kolkata.
Hundreds of thousands of faithful are expected to attend the canonisation service for the tiny nun, which will be led by Pope Francis in front of St. Peter's basilica.
Although criticised both during her life and following her death, Mother Teresa is revered by Catholics as a model of compassion who brought relief to the sick and dying, opening branches of her Missionaries of Charity (MoC) order around the world.
"Even in popular culture she's identified with goodness, kindness, charity," said Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the MoC priest who campaigned for her sainthood.
In novels or movies often characters say, "'Oh, who do you think I am? Mother Teresa?'" he told Reuters.
Her critics view her differently, arguing she did little to alleviate the pain of the terminally ill and nothing to stamp out the root causes of poverty.
In 1991, the British medical journal the Lancet visited a home she ran in Kolkata for the dying and said untrained carers failed to recognise when some patients could have been cured.
Kolodiejchuk said her detractors missed the point of her mission, arguing that she had created a place to comfort people in their final days rather than establish hospitals.
"We don't have to prove that saints were perfect, because no one is perfect," he said.
CHRISTIANITY 'NOT THE ONLY WAY'
In her adopted India, a primarily Hindu nation, Mother Teresa has been accused of looking to convert the destitute to Christianity - something her mission has repeatedly denied.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the umbrella right-wing Hindu organisation that helped create India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also accuses Mother Teresa of revelling in the misery of others.
"As a resident of Kolkata, I feel insulted to see its poverty being glorified by the MoC. As a Hindu nationalist I also feel that Christianity is not the only way of salvation," said Jishnu Bose, the RSS spokesman in the city.
But Mother Teresa still has legions of supporters in India, including BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"All her life she worked to serve poorer sections of Indian society. When such a person is conferred with sainthood, it is natural for Indians to feel proud," Modi said on Sunday in a radio broadcast.
Mother Teresa was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia. She became a nun at 16 and moved to India in 1929, creating her mission in 1950.
The Roman Catholic Church has more than 10,000 saints, many of whom had to wait centuries before their elevation.
But Mother Teresa, one of the most recognisable faces of the 20th century, was put on the fast track to sainthood after dying of a heart attack on Sept. 5, 1997.
The late Pope John Paul II bent Vatican rules to allow the procedure to establish her case for sainthood to be launched two years after her death instead of the usual five, and she was beatified in 2003.
The Church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in Heaven and able to intercede with God to perform miracles. She has been credited with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick people.
The latest involved a Brazilian, Marcilio Andrino, who unexpectedly recovered from a severe brain infection in 2008. He and his wife Fernanda will attend the canonisation, which is considered the highlight of Pope Francis's Holy Year of Mercy.
(Additional reporting by Philip Pullella in Rome and Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata; editing by John Stonestreet)
Page 2 of 2
Pope Francis will make Mother Teresa, the world's most famous nun, a saint on Sunday. Following are key facts about her life.
EARLY LIFE
Mother Teresa was born to ethnic Albanian parents on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia, and named Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu. Deeply religious, she became a nun at the age of 16, joining the Loreto abbey in Ireland. Two years later she was given the name Sister Teresa.
CALCUTTA
In early 1929 she moved to Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, where she became a teacher and, 15 years on, headmistress at a convent school.
In 1946 she received "a call within a call" to found the Missionaries of Charity, officially established as a religious congregation in 1950. Nuns of the order began calling her Mother Teresa. The Indian government granted her citizenship in 1951.
The following year Mother Teresa opened her first home for the dying, and in 1957 her first mobile leprosy clinic. She worked for three decades in India before leaving for the first time in 1960, going to the United States to address the National Council of Catholic Women.
WORK SPREADS WORLDWIDE
In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the Decree of Praise to Mother Teresa's religious order, bringing it directly under Vatican jurisdiction. That same year the first Missionaries of Charity house outside India was founded, in Venezuela. Others later opened in Italy, Tanzania, Australia and the United States.
In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for the world's destitute. "I am unworthy," she said.
Despite declining health, including arthritis, failing eyesight and heart problems, she continued to work. Pope John Paul granted her request to open a shelter for vagrants inside the walls of the Vatican. In 1988 she opened her first communities in the former Soviet Union.
In March 1997 Sister Nirmala, a former Hindu who converted to Roman Catholicism, succeeded Mother Teresa as leader of the Missionaries of Charity.
On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa died of a heart attack at her order's headquarters in Kolkata. An array of world dignitaries attended her funeral.
PATH TO CANONISATION
In October Archbishop Henry D'Souza successfully petitioned the Vatican to waive the usual delay of five years after death before initiating the beatification process.
In late 2002, the Vatican ruled that an Indian woman's stomach tumour had been miraculously cured after prayers to Mother Teresa. Pope John Paul wanted to declare her a saint immediately, bypassing the beatification process, but was dissuaded by cardinals.
In December 2015, Pope Francis opened the way for her canonisation by approving a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to her intercession with God -- the healing of a Brazilian who recovered from a severe brain infection in 2008.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by John Stonestreet)
After lifetime with the poor, Mother Teresa speeds to sainthood
By Crispian Balmer | VATICAN CITY
Affectionately called the "saint of the gutters" during her lifetime, Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be made an official saint of the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, just 19 years after her death.
A Nobel peace prize winner, Mother Teresa was one of the most influential women in the Church's 2,000-year history, acclaimed for her work amongst the world's poorest of the poor in the slums of Kolkata.
Hundreds of thousands of faithful are expected to attend the canonisation service for the tiny nun, which will be led by Pope Francis in front of St. Peter's basilica.
Although criticised both during her life and following her death, Mother Teresa is revered by Catholics as a model of compassion who brought relief to the sick and dying, opening branches of her Missionaries of Charity (MoC) order around the world.
"Even in popular culture she's identified with goodness, kindness, charity," said Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the MoC priest who campaigned for her sainthood.
In novels or movies often characters say, "'Oh, who do you think I am? Mother Teresa?'" he told Reuters.
Her critics view her differently, arguing she did little to alleviate the pain of the terminally ill and nothing to stamp out the root causes of poverty.
In 1991, the British medical journal the Lancet visited a home she ran in Kolkata for the dying and said untrained carers failed to recognise when some patients could have been cured.
Kolodiejchuk said her detractors missed the point of her mission, arguing that she had created a place to comfort people in their final days rather than establish hospitals.
"We don't have to prove that saints were perfect, because no one is perfect," he said.
CHRISTIANITY 'NOT THE ONLY WAY'
In her adopted India, a primarily Hindu nation, Mother Teresa has been accused of looking to convert the destitute to Christianity - something her mission has repeatedly denied.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the umbrella right-wing Hindu organisation that helped create India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also accuses Mother Teresa of revelling in the misery of others.
"As a resident of Kolkata, I feel insulted to see its poverty being glorified by the MoC. As a Hindu nationalist I also feel that Christianity is not the only way of salvation," said Jishnu Bose, the RSS spokesman in the city.
But Mother Teresa still has legions of supporters in India, including BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"All her life she worked to serve poorer sections of Indian society. When such a person is conferred with sainthood, it is natural for Indians to feel proud," Modi said on Sunday in a radio broadcast.
Mother Teresa was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia. She became a nun at 16 and moved to India in 1929, creating her mission in 1950.
The Roman Catholic Church has more than 10,000 saints, many of whom had to wait centuries before their elevation.
But Mother Teresa, one of the most recognisable faces of the 20th century, was put on the fast track to sainthood after dying of a heart attack on Sept. 5, 1997.
The late Pope John Paul II bent Vatican rules to allow the procedure to establish her case for sainthood to be launched two years after her death instead of the usual five, and she was beatified in 2003.
The Church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in Heaven and able to intercede with God to perform miracles. She has been credited with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick people.
The latest involved a Brazilian, Marcilio Andrino, who unexpectedly recovered from a severe brain infection in 2008. He and his wife Fernanda will attend the canonisation, which is considered the highlight of Pope Francis's Holy Year of Mercy.
(Additional reporting by Philip Pullella in Rome and Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata; editing by John Stonestreet)
Page 2 of 2
Pope Francis will make Mother Teresa, the world's most famous nun, a saint on Sunday. Following are key facts about her life.
EARLY LIFE
Mother Teresa was born to ethnic Albanian parents on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia, and named Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu. Deeply religious, she became a nun at the age of 16, joining the Loreto abbey in Ireland. Two years later she was given the name Sister Teresa.
CALCUTTA
In early 1929 she moved to Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, where she became a teacher and, 15 years on, headmistress at a convent school.
In 1946 she received "a call within a call" to found the Missionaries of Charity, officially established as a religious congregation in 1950. Nuns of the order began calling her Mother Teresa. The Indian government granted her citizenship in 1951.
The following year Mother Teresa opened her first home for the dying, and in 1957 her first mobile leprosy clinic. She worked for three decades in India before leaving for the first time in 1960, going to the United States to address the National Council of Catholic Women.
WORK SPREADS WORLDWIDE
In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the Decree of Praise to Mother Teresa's religious order, bringing it directly under Vatican jurisdiction. That same year the first Missionaries of Charity house outside India was founded, in Venezuela. Others later opened in Italy, Tanzania, Australia and the United States.
In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for the world's destitute. "I am unworthy," she said.
Despite declining health, including arthritis, failing eyesight and heart problems, she continued to work. Pope John Paul granted her request to open a shelter for vagrants inside the walls of the Vatican. In 1988 she opened her first communities in the former Soviet Union.
In March 1997 Sister Nirmala, a former Hindu who converted to Roman Catholicism, succeeded Mother Teresa as leader of the Missionaries of Charity.
On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa died of a heart attack at her order's headquarters in Kolkata. An array of world dignitaries attended her funeral.
PATH TO CANONISATION
In October Archbishop Henry D'Souza successfully petitioned the Vatican to waive the usual delay of five years after death before initiating the beatification process.
In late 2002, the Vatican ruled that an Indian woman's stomach tumour had been miraculously cured after prayers to Mother Teresa. Pope John Paul wanted to declare her a saint immediately, bypassing the beatification process, but was dissuaded by cardinals.
In December 2015, Pope Francis opened the way for her canonisation by approving a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to her intercession with God -- the healing of a Brazilian who recovered from a severe brain infection in 2008.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by John Stonestreet)
