Nikola and Dranafile were Albanians. They originally belonged to the city of Prizren, which was then a part of Yugoslavia. Nikola was a famous merchant and entrepreneur. He settled with his family in the town of Skopje, Serbia. He was a strict disciplinarian and an important figure in Skopje’s civic life. He was a man with charitable disposition and never refused the poor.
Dranafile was a deeply religious, generous and devoted housewife. She too had a family background of merchants and landowners. She was an affectionate and strong-willed woman, widely respected for her values, wisdom and generosity. The children, called their mother ‘Nanaloke’- ‘Nana’ meaning ‘Mother’, and ‘loke’ meaning the soul; ‘the mother of my soul’.
In the year, 1904, Dranafile gave birth to their first child. She was a beautiful baby girl and they named her Aga. Aga was a religious and intelligent girl. She had keen interest in singing, composition and playing instruments.
Lazar, their second child was born in 1907. He was sporty, good-looking and youthful. At a very young age he had won a scholarship to study in Austria.
On August 26, 1910 Dranafile gave birth to her third child in Skopje (Shkup), capital of the Kosava vilayet (province), Serbia. She was the youngest child of the family. She was christened Agnes-Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 27, 1910. The family was very religious and they were very God-fearing. They went to the church on every Sunday and when both the sisters grew up they used to sing in the church choir and were known as the church’s two ‘nightingales’
The year, 1910, in which Agnes was born, Albania faced great political disturbance. Two years later (1912), the First Balkan War broke out. It was followed by the First World War. During this period, her family suffered a lot. Agnes was only two years old when Albania got its independence in 1912.
CHILDHOOD
Agnes’ childhood was comfortable and prosperous. She lived in a large house with a spacious garden having number of fruit trees.
She was a plump, round and a tidy child. She was the youngest and the favorite child of the family.
Her early education was at the Sacred Heart Church. She was a bit different from children of the same age group being more intelligent, sensible and matured. She was very famous among her female friends. She had a great sense of humor though she was shy of boys and avoided their company.
They were one happy family and lived a well-contended life. But fate had something else for them.
In 1919, Nikola left home for Belgrade to join a political meeting. While leaving he was in a good health and spirit. But he returned with a haemorrhage. The family took him to a local hospital but all kinds of emergency surgery failed to save his life. He died at a very young age of forty-five. As per his family members and the doctors, Nikola was poisoned. Agnes was only eight years old when her father died. Suddenly, the prosperous and happy childhood of the Bojaxhiu children was brought to an end by the sudden death of their father.
Another shocking news followed Nikola’s death. His business partners betrayed the entire family by taking hold of the whole business. Even Agnes’ maternal uncles did not spare her mother and claimed the legal property of Drana Bojaxhiu. Husband’s death and loss in business and property made her mother miserable. The whole family was left with only a little roof above their head. For the first time she and her family faced a terrible situation with no-financial security.
Being a strong-willed woman, Drana did not allow Agnes and her brother and sister to face unhappiness. She took great care of her children by providing them with all basic needs. This strength of her mother’s character influenced her a lot. She always remained under the care of her religious mother who taught her the values of non-materialistic kindness, generosity and love for poor and weak.
Throughout her life, Agnes believed that "Home is where the mother is". Agnes’ home was always kept open for the poor. Her parents always instructed the children to share their food with other poor children. Her mother took care of poor, old and the destitute as her own family members. She often accompanied her mother on these kind of charitable works and she strictly followed her mother’s instruction throughout her life that "When you do good, do it quietly, as if you were throwing a stone into the sea".
Thus, she always remained weak and however much her family members tried to cure her and improve her health, it would deteriorate again.
Since her childhood, Agnes had a weak chest and she suffered of chronic cough during her childhood.
As a very small child, she dreamt of serving the poor people of Africa. She had great knowledge and information regarding the working of missionaries all over India through letters received at the chapel. She learned that in Bengal, there was an order of nuns serving the poor and children, especially in the field of education. They were called Loreto nuns who were members of an International Order. All these descriptions about missionary work deeply affected young Agnes.
At the age of twelve years, she received an inner ‘call’ from her Inner-self. She had a feeling that God wanted her to join the spiritual life and belong completely to Him.
Following the call, Agnes became an active member of Sodality of Children of Mary, a Christian society for girls. This society was set up by a Croatian Jesuit priest, Father Jambre Kovic of Sacred Heart in May, 1925, in Skopje. Through this society, she wanted to fulfil her religious and social pursuits.
YOUTH
At the age of seventeen, Agnes grew up into an attractive, and beautiful young girl. She actively participated in the activities of her community. She was very systematic and she organized all her activities very nicely. She was a very good student and she fared well in studies. She had an in-born communication power and thus many of her friends came to her for tuitions and for getting extra knowledge. She also had a talent in the field of writing articles and composing poems. She loved teaching too.
Although, she fared well in her studies and was a very talented girl but her inclination towards the society and for its welfare was so strong that when she was eighteen years old, she decided to become a missionary nun.
As she was very much attached to her family, blood relatives, friends and home town she had to struggle a lot in taking this important decision. Her mother was not surprised by her daughter’s decision. She went to her room and remained there for twenty-four hours. When she came out, she blessed her daughter and advised her, "Put Your Hand in His and walk all the way with Him."
Meanwhile, Agnes’ brother, Lazar after his studies, had joined the Albania’s Military Academy. On September 1, 1928 he joined the new monarchy of King Zog I, Albania as second Lieutenant in the army.
Agnes’ decision to become a nun surprised her brother, Lazar. He wrote a letter to her, asking whether she was really serious about her decision or not. She sent an immediate reply to her brother, "You are an officer serving a king with two million soldiers. But I am serving the king of the whole world."
Life, for Agnes, had changed then. She was looking forward to her new life. A life where she would be able to serve the poor and the unwanted. So, finally on September 26, 1928, she boarded the train for Zagreb from Skopje. Hundreds of people had come to see her off on her journey to an unknown land. Her mother and sister accompanied her till Zagreb. In Zagreb, she was joined by another girl, Betika Kajnc who too wanted to become a nun.
Finally, she waved her mother goodbye. It was the last time she ever saw her.
Agnes and her colleague landed at Rathfarnham, Dublin and they went to the house of the Loreto Sisters and on October 12, 1928, she and her friend received their postulant’s caps at Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham. She stayed in the Convent for a few months and on December 1, 1928, she started her journey towards India to enter into a new world of sacrifice and service which was a dream for her, her true goal.
Before sailing for India, Agnes had changed her name from Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Sister Mary Teresa of the Child Jesus – after Teresa of Lisieux, the ‘Little Flower’.
Mary Teresa, as she was then called, first landed at Colombo – ‘the land of dream’. She was surprised by the extreme beauty of nature as well as the civic life of Colombo. From Colombo, she proceeded to Madras (now Chennai) which was her next station. There, she observed the extreme poverty and strange customs and was shocked at the tragic condition.
On January 6, 1929, she arrived in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and stayed there for a week. From there, she went to Darjeeling and became a Loreto beginner.
On May 23, 1929, she received the ‘holy habit’ (the religious dress of Loreto). She wore the black habit and a veil as a Loreto nun and started learning Hindi and Bengali. As a nun, she was a wonderful lady, very happy, bright and full of fun. She was very hard working, kind and generous.
On May 24, 1931, she became a teacher in the Loreto Convent School of Darjeeling. She also worked in a small hospital helping the nursing staff. It was in this hospital that she had the first experience of suffering of the poor Indians.
Once a man came to Mary Teresa carrying a bundle. She saw that two dry twigs were hanging out of the bundle. On close inspection, she was shocked to find that they were not twigs, but abnormally thin legs of a completely blind child who was on the verge of death. The man was afraid that she might refuse to accept the child. He told her that if she did not want the child, he would throw the child into the grass and the jackals would not turn up their noses at him. Hearing that, her heart froze. She took the child into her arms and folded him in her apron. The child had found a second mother.
She stayed in Darjeeling for sometime and then later on from Darjeeling, Mary Teresa went to Calcutta. There, she worked as a teacher of history and geography in Loreto School, Entally. Inside Loreto Entally, was St. Mary’s high school for Bengali girls. In that Bengali high school, Mary Teresa became a teacher and was known as the ‘Bengali Teresa’.
She also taught at St. Teresa’s primary school. The pupil of St. Teresa’s school were studying and living in very poor conditions. Besides teaching, she took care of the students by giving them love. Because of her tender care and loving nature, she was called ‘Ma’.
By then, Mary Teresa had already experienced the joy of selfless service. She feet a serenity, which no other work could make her feel.
On May 24, 1937, Mary Teresa finally took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience for life. From that very day, she was renamed as ‘Mother Teresa’.
Every Sunday, Mother visited the slum areas of Calcutta and started spreading happiness among the poor people. She was very simple, wore the simplest of dresses and a second-hand shoes. She used to feel poorer amongst the poor. Her only goal was to brighten the lives of the poor and to lead them to God. Mother Teresa and other members of the Sodality of Mary visited the slum dwellers of Motijhil, which was situated on the other side of the wall of the Entally compound, and which later became her first venture.
In the year of 1943, Bengal was hit by the greatest famine of the century. This famine resulted in the destruction and devastation of human lives. Millions of people died, many thousands came to Calcutta in search of food and many others lost their jobs and property.
During the Second World War, the condition of Calcutta worsened. During this period, Mother Teresa became the principal of Bengali school. She was also the superior-in-charge of the Loreto nuns and daughters of St. Anne.
On July 11, 1944, Mother Teresa met Father Celeste Van Exem in Baitha-kana, Calcutta, for the first time. Since then, he became her closest friend, spiritual director and father of her spiritual journey.
Mother never left any stone unturned to serve others. She would take any risk and would fearlessly move forward to fulfil her desire of service.
Although Mother Teresa had a weak chest since childhood and she suffered a lot from frequent coughs, still taking rest and remaining out of work brought tears into her eyes.
TURNING POINT
In the month of September, 1946, she had a strange experience. On the 10th of that month, during her journey from Entally to Darjeeling by train, she received ‘the call within a call’. "This was a call of God to be a Missionary of Charity" as stayed by Mother herself. She described this ‘call’ as the ‘hidden treasure’ for her. She was to leave the Convent and help the poor while living amongst them.
Since then, September 10, is celebrated annually throughout the world as ‘Inspiration Day’ by ‘Missionaries of Charity’ and the ‘Co–Workers’.
After receiving this divine inspiration in the train from God, Mother Teresa passed her days in loneliness. She returned to Entally in October and met Father Van Exem. She had written about her thoughts, related to the ‘call’ on slips of paper and she entrusted these small slips of paper to Father Van Exem on her return, with a request for his opinion and direction, asking his views and guidance. Father Van Exem told her to wait for three-four months before the matter could be raised with Archbishop Perier.
In January, 1947, Mother Teresa wrote to Archbishop Perier about the ‘Will of God’. Father Van Exem personally went with her letter and met Archbishop Perier. The Archbishop refused and told her to wait for a year. Till then, her application would not be forwarded to Rome.
Mother was getting more and more impatient about her going out to the poor and thus requested the Archbishop repeatedly. During this period she was transferred to the Loreto Convent at Asansol.
At Asansol, Mother Teresa was very happy. She did not reveal anything about her ‘Second Call’ to anybody inside the Loreto Order at Calcutta and Asansol. This was a personal order from Archbishop Perier. Within a short period she was again called back by the bishop to Calcutta.
In January 1948, Archbishop finally permitted Mother Teresa for applying to her own Mother General in Rathfarnham, regarding her leaving the Loreto Order. Mother Teresa soon wrote to Mother Gertrude M. Kennedy, the Mother General of Loreto Order.
On February 2, 1948, she received Mother General’s letter permitting her to send an application, directly to Rome. Later she received the permission letter on April 12, 1948, to leave Loreto Order for one year. She was given the ‘induct of exclaustration’ (meaning – allowing her to leave the Convent and remain as a religious, committed to her vows and under the obedience of Archbishop).
Though the permission letter was received by Archbishop on April 12, 1948, the news was disclosed to Mother Teresa on August 8, 1948, in front of other members and Mother Superior Ita of Loreto Convent, Calcutta. This news created a shock wave amongst her colleagues and superiors.
On the evening of August 16, Mother Teresa removed her old religious habit (dress) and wore a new habit of her future ‘Missionary of Charity’ Order. Her new dress consisted of a simple, cotton, white sari with blue stripes (blue was the color of Virgin Mary) alongwith white habits to be worn under the sari.
At midnight of August 16, Mother Teresa left Loreto Order, Entally, with only a ticket to Patna and just Rupees five for other expenditure. In Patna, she worked in the Holy Family Hospital and gained some medical knowledge. She returned from Patna and formed new rules of her ‘Missionaries of Charity’ in Calcutta. As per the rules of Missionaries of Charity the nuns who would join the Order, would live, dress and eat like the poorest of the poor. They would have to take utmost care of the poor people. The food would consist of rice and salt. Her first residence cum-office of Missionaries of Charity was a small room on the first floor of Little Sisters of the Poor’s Institution in Calcutta.
Missionaries of Charity and its foundress, Mother Teresa were the two most wonderful things on earth. For the first time, in India ‘the highest and the lowest were brought together’ by the efforts of a holy soul who had crossed all barriers of race, religion, creed and nation.
For Mother Teresa, work was no more than love towards suffering people. Her Missionaries of Charity had seen both the suffering of poor people and their greatness. This led to deepening of love towards their people.
When Mother Teresa was at the peak of her youth, she loved and worked for millions of poor and destitute throughout the world. The ‘call within a call’ set her out into the world of innumerable sufferings and pain. She became ‘Ma’ to the abandoned and unwanted children, to the poor parents, to the sick and dying people, all around the world.
14, CREEK LANE
On February 28, 1949, Mother Teresa moved into her new convent in 14, Creek Lane, which was a little bigger than the Little Sisters of Poor’s Institution, the place where she had initially started her work of love and charity.
In India, Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity established houses for children and for the sick and dying poors in more than 61 cities.
Her beautiful gifts to Calcutta – her land of first choice – was Nirmal Hriday (or Pure Heart) – a home for dying and sick people. It was a ‘Place of the Immaculate Heart’. Mother Teresa wanted to give a ‘beautiful death’ to those who lived like animals on street and wanted them to die like angels, loved and wanted.’
She developed the Motijhil slums by the upliftment of adults and children through education, teaching them about health and religion, caring and loving them and by constructing homes for the sick and the dying slum dwellers.
She helped the Howrah and Titlagarh slums to face the life with dignity. Mother Teresa fed the hungry and thirsty poors as if they were her own children. She saw Christ in each and every person. She worked as if it was God’s work. She and her Missionaries of Charity were channels and instruments of love.
Mother Teresa and Missionaries of Charity opened Shishu Bhavan in Calcutta and a series of children’s home. At Shishu Bhavan, Mother Teresa provided comfort to unlimited number of unwanted children, to orphans, sick, crippled or mentally handicapped, to those whose parents were unable to support them, to children whose mothers had died in Nirmal Hriday and to babies born to unmarried mothers, who would never be accepted back into their families.
Mother Teresa established a General Child Welfare Fund from which the children could be helped.
Mother Teresa protested against abortion and sterilization program to control the growing population in India. For her, every child was the infant Christ. Abortion for her was equal to crucifixion of Christ.
Mother Teresa formed ‘Holy Family Planning’ and gave instructions about the use of ‘Rhythm Method’.
Her Convent was a Christian house owned by two brothers, Michael and Alfred Gomes. Her room was on the second floor. The room had nothing but a bench, which was used as a library, a box used as a table, a chair provided by Good Mother of Little Sisters of the Poor and a green almirah (cupboard), which was used as an altar. The Loreto nuns donated her a bed, alongwith a picture of Immaculate – ‘Heart of Mary’.
On March 19, 1949, one of Mother Teresa’s pupils of Loreto Convent School, Entally, a Bengali girl, Shubhasini Das joined her in her new Convent at Creek Lane. She changed Shubhasini’s name to sister Agnes.
On April 26, Magdalene Gomes, became her second young colleague. She adopted the name of Sister Gertrude. Sister Margaret Mary followed Sister Gertrude and joined the Convent in May. Thus, the first group of her Convent consisted of ten girls. They were her former students at Loreto Convent. They all stayed together in the upper room at Creek Lane.
Mother Teresa with her Sisters began their work by helping the poorest of poor. They begged from door to door and passed the things they got from begging, to the people who were starving on the streets. They took great care of the sick and the dying and taught the children about the dignity of human life.
She continued to serve the poor from that small place for a very long time.
MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY
Finally, on October 7, 1950, the constitution for the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa was laid down. On that day, the eleven sisters began their postulancy as Missionaries of Charity.
On April 11, 1951, Father Van Exem organized a reception ceremony in which the new Sisters (novices) who had joined the Convent came to the church dressed as Bengali brides. During the service, they first went to a room where Mother Teresa gave them a hair cut and after the hair cut, they wore the religious dress (habit) of the Missionaries of Charity.
All the Sisters of Missionaries of Charity stayed together leading a life of simplicity, loving trust, total surrender and cheerfulness. The growing number of Sisters made the Convent at Creek Lane smaller and it became difficult for the Sisters to stay together. They needed a larger place to stay. So, in March 1953, Mother Teresa and her Sisters moved into the permanent ‘Mother House’ at 54 A, Lower Circular Road, which is now known as Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Road (A. J. C Bose Road). The ‘Mother House’ comprised of two houses surrounding a central courtyard. It was spacious enough to accommodate the Sisters and even if new Sisters joined the Convent, it would not be uncomfortable. Mother Teresa and her Sisters stayed in extreme poverty; so, they were totally dependent on people’s generosity.
She always instructed her Sisters that in order to understand and help those who have nothing, we must live like them. Mother Teresa taught them lovingly how to beg from door to door. They collected left-over food in the afternoon, from the people of Canal Street, who were staying near the ‘Mother House’ and then used to carry the food to the dispensary for the poor children.
She always believed in the Divine Providence. She had full faith in God. She knew that God would never let her down in her work. Once the Sisters were making a mattress for a new Sister who was to join the Convent; but they ran short of cotton. Mother soon offered her pillow, but the Sisters hesitated to accept her sacrifice feeling that after extreme labor for the whole day she would need rest at the end of the day. Still, she was requesting them to accept her pillow. In the meantime, an Englishman knocked at their door with a mattress under his arm. He wanted to give the mattress to Mother Teresa as he was leaving for England. God had sent the stranger exactly at that moment when they needed the mattress most.
The work of Missionaries of Charity was progressing at a great speed and people started calling it a ‘Running Convent’. Mother Teresa became the Superior of the Order, succeeding from Archbishop Perier. Seeing the work and growth of Missionaries of Charity through contribution of outstanding strength of Mother Teresa, Archbishop Perier finally announced that ‘Manifestly the finger of God is here’.
Mother always advised her Missionaries of Charity to follow the same rules of charity and chastity. Chastity was to be lived ‘in thoughts and affections, in desires and attachments’.
Mother Teresa’s success in work of charity depended on her striving for perfection that she wanted from her Sisters. During hard work, she would never forget meditation and spiritual readings and expected the same from her sisters. She saw herself that the Sisters never deterred from the path of ‘Obedience’ to the Church.
Mother Teresa’s work began to spread fast. For nearly ten years, her work was restricted to Calcutta only. But by 1959, Missionaries of Charity were invited from all over the country to establish homes in Ranchi, Delhi, Jhansi, Bombay, etc. In Delhi, the Missionaries of Charity opened a children’s home.
Glamour-city Bombay (now Mumbai) had slums that were worse than the ones in Kolkata. Missionaries of Charity opened a home for the dying in Bombay.
The Missionaries of Charity got a big donation from Pope Paul VII on Christmas. With the large amount, the Sisters gave five thousand children and leprosy patients a good meal and a small present. He also gave them all necessary help to purchase four thousand beds and mattresses for the poor, and a ‘pontifical’ lorry.
In November, 1960, Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity, finally got the pontifical recognition. In the constitution of the Convent, the Missionaries of Charity got three words to remember : -
• ‘Dependence’ on God everyday
• Detachment from the Goods of this world and
• Dedication
NIRMAL HRIDAY
The Missionaries of Charity, besides helping the poor and sick, were directly involved in the work of religious education.
During 1950s, after partition, Calcutta became a city with great human misery. Three million people were without home, jobs and slept on pavements. There was a dangerous rise in the number of refugees, destitute and sick people. People were dying on the street as hospitals had no place for the sick and poor.
At such a time, Mother Teresa applied to the Municipal Corporation for providing a house for the homeless who were dying on the streets. She wanted to take care of the starving, poor and extremely sick people.
The government granted her, a large-sum of money and allowed her to use a pilgrim’s rest-house attached to the Kali Temple of Kalighat.The district of Kalighat is popular for Kali Temple and is situated on the banks of Hooghly River into which flows the pure water of the Ganges.
She was given two big rooms at right angles to each other linked by a passage by the corporation health officer. She liked the rooms very much. She thought that this would be the best place for her dying poor people who could take rest before they departed for heaven. Thus, the foundation of ‘Nirmal Hriday’ was laid by Mother Teresa and her Sisters.
The body of the fleshless people suffering from disease and maggots were given a bed to rest in these two big rooms. They were taken care of by the Sisters, by providing food, shelter and medicines.
Mother insisted on admission of only extremely sick, homeless, street-beggars, and lepers, rejected by the family and the dying man. She gave these people a chance to die with dignity. She wanted the dying person to die ‘beautifully’. According to Mother Teresa, " ‘A beautiful death’ is for people who lived like animals to die like angels – loved and wanted."
During the initial period, Nirmal Hriday faced lots of protests from many Hindu people. They thought that she was converting these poor people into Christians in the name of love and affection. Many a times, stones were thrown at the Sisters when they tried to carry the sick people into the room.
Once she was threatened by a man that he would kill her. But her immediate response was that if he killed her, she would hope to reach God sooner. Another day a leader of a group of young people, entered Nirmal Hriday with an intention to throw the Sisters out. But on entering the room, he saw the Sisters treating the abnormal bodies of sick people with love and care. He soon left the room and told his colleagues that he would throw the Sisters out only on one condition that they should request their mothers and Sisters to start the same kind of service to the poor like Mother Teresa.
She was also called as Ma – Kali, a Kali of flesh and blood by the priests of neighboring temples. Her Nirmal Hriday was really the treasure house of Calcutta, as it’s imagined that people who died there, went straight to God.
Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity took the responsibility of unlimited number of unwanted children, who were orphans, sick, physically and mentally handicapped, whose mothers died in the Nirmal Hriday and of babies born to unmarried mothers.
SHISHU BHAVAN
The first among the complete series of children’s home, Shishu Bhavan was opened on September 23, 1955 in a very simple, two-storey building with a large courtyard only a short distance from Mother’s House in the Lower Circular Road, Calcutta. Dr. B. C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, an outstanding statesman, and a renowned doctor helped Mother Teresa in acquiring the house for Shishu Bhavan. The children brought to the Shishu Bhavan were often found from dustbins and drains. Some were brought from the railway platforms left by their parents. Mostly the children were hungry for love. They suffered from severe malnutrition and tuberculosis. Many of the children were sent to Shishu Bhavan by the police, social-workers, doctors and hospitals.
While caring for these helpless, disabled children, Mother Teresa started giving training to some older girls in typing and helped them in finding jobs. As the words spread by, many individual persons came to Shishu Bhavan and took the financial responsibility of children for the first Ten years. Thereafter, parents throughout the country and world started pouring offers of sponsoring the children’s future.
In 1975, this system of individual sponsorship was replaced by a General World Child Welfare Fund whose work was to share the financial help equally between thousands of children who were taken care by Missionaries of Charity. Missionaries of Charity opened Shishu Bhavan in 61 cities. Being an Indian citizen herself, Mother Teresa was well-aware of the deep traditions of Indians. Many children of Shishu Bhavan went back to their parents after becoming normal. Many children were adopted as per their caste, creed and religion. Those who remained with her, were married as per Indian culture and customs. Each girl was given as dowry, a new sari, a few bangles and a wedding ring. Though there were some babies who died within an hour of their arrival at Shishu Bhavan, still she never refused such babies as she did not want a tiny baby to die unwanted, uncared and unloved. According to her, even a small baby could feel.
TITLAGARH LEPROSY CENTER
Mother Teresa was always concerned about the condition of leprosy patients. It was a widespread disease in the slums of Kolkata due to the unhygienic and the poor condition. The Missionaries of Charity started a leper asylum at Gobra district, on the outskirts of Calcutta.
She was donated an ambulance by Pope Paul VI for carrying out the distribution of ration and free treatment to thousands of leprosy victims. An ambulance was also donated to her by Dr. Sen, an eminent specialist in leprosy treatment in Carmichael Hospital for Tropical Disease.
In 1957, she laid the foundation for the first mobile leprosy clinic, which was opened by Archbishop Perier at Shishu Bhavan on Lower Circular Road. She wanted to open a ‘Static-all-weather-dispensary’. First, she started with a mobile clinic under a tree on a small land between two railway lines and the Titlagarh Municipal Sewage pumping station for treating a large group of leprosy patients. That clinic was made a permanent dispensary in March, 1959. All kinds of medicines were provided, alongwith free distribution of milk and rice. The fear was removed from the mind of the patients by giving them confidence and respect. She named the Titlagarh Leprosy center as ‘Gandhi Prem Nivas’, the ‘Gandhi center for Love’. She had great respect for Gandhiji whom she called ‘India’s greatest soul’.
Mother Teresa contributed a lot for the victims of leprosy by establishing number of leprosy clinics, houses, and jobs for them. She also started a ‘Leprosy Fund’ and celebrating a ‘ Leprosy Day’. Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity wanted to change the idea of Indians about lepers that ‘once a leper-a leper for life’.
Mother Teresa and her Sisters loved the lepers, touched them, treated them and provided them a dignified life. Mother Teresa created Shantinagar for hundreds of leper families. Seeing the dedication of Missionaries of Charity, numerous doctors and nurses gave free service and medical care in the leper-clinics. The Missionaries of Charity never wore gloves to touch the maggot-ridden bodies of the dying because they felt that they were tending the body of Christ.
By the year 1984, four million leprosy patients were treated throughout mobile leprosy clinics, 1,06,271 people received weekly rations and 51,580 people got cooked food through the relief centers; 13,246 people were admitted to homes for dying destitute and 8,627 people were successfully discharged; otherwise, they might have died on the streets unwanted and uncared-for.
WORKS IN SLUMS
Mother Teresa’s first venture was the Motijhil slums. On December 21, 1948, she went first into the slum via Mauli Ali, an area which is known as Missionary of Charity Marg (Road).
She opened a slum school in Motijhil the same year on December 28. Mother taught the children about the hygiene and Bengali alphabet and those who were not clean, she gave them good bath at the tank. She used the ground as a black-board. She also conducted needle work classes and visited the sick. She took on rent two huts in Motijhil for Rs. 5 each. One was made a school in which students were given milk at midday and soap bars were given as prizes. The other hut served as the first home for the sick and the dying destitute.
Then, Mother simultaneously started teaching in the slums of Tiljala and Howrah. She visited the sick and old, taught religion to Christian children and gave comfort to both Hindu and Muslim families alike during poverty. She also opened a dispensary at St. Teresa’s church. She felt extremely happy when she was taking care of hundreds of suffering people. In 1964, when Pope visited India, he had gifted his white Lincoln continental car to Mother. She sold this car and got a huge amount, which helped her in constructing a hospital.
SHANTINAGAR
Papal Propagation of the Faith in Germany donated Mother a piece of land for a Convent and a Chapel. Thus, the foundation for ‘Shantinagar’, the ‘Place of Peace’ was laid. There, a well and a pond were constructed. Many trees of bananas and palms were grown and few houses for leper families were built. She planned to settle 400 families of lepers in Shantinagar. The houses were cheaper, easily manageable, attractive and hygienic. The patients were given required medical treatment. A large number of doctors and nurses gave voluntary services to the poor at Nirmal Hriday and Shantinagar.
MISSIONARY BROTHERS OF CHARITY
By the beginning of 1960s, Mother had another dream of having a similar Convent of Brothers just like her Convent of Sisters, working on the same principle and spirit.
Mother Teresa on March 25, 1963 formed a society of three Brothers with the help of Father Julien Henry and blessings of Archbishop Albert D’Souza. The religious habits of Brothers were white shirts and trousers. They stayed at Shishu Bhavan and got training from the Sisters. They also learnt carpentry.
On February 19, 1966, this small group of men in Shishu Bhavan got their leader, an Australian Jesuit, Father Ian Travers-Ball. He adopted a new name, Brother Andrew. Brother Andrew was born on August 27, 1928 in Melbourne. Mother Teresa during the simple ceremony of formation of ‘Convent of Brother’, gave Brother Andrew a small crucifix to be worn over the heart. All the brothers worked under his care. From the first day of his joining Missionaries of Charity of Brothers, he respected and admired Mother Teresa.
On March 26, 1967, Brother’s Convent got the recognition from the Roman Catholic Church. Brother and Sisters of Missionaries of Charity worked together at the same level.
Missionary Brothers of Charity, which was initiated by Mother Teresa had the same special aim like Sister’s Convent. According to Brother’s Convent constitution, they had to live a life of love, dedicated to the service of poorest of poor in slums, on the streets or wherever they were found. Brothers were concerned with the homeless boys, young men in slums, leprosy patients, destitute, beggars and those rendered homeless due to war and calamities.
During this period in 1954, a British lady, Ann Blaikie got involved in all these activities. Mother Teresa showed her the way of love towards children. This led to a dozen of European women eagerly making toys out of tinfoil and selling them to raise funds. With these funds, Mother provided gifts to the children of different religion on the day of their festivals. The children were given parties by many well-wishers of Mother, though they had support of other missions also.
A society called ‘Mariam Society’ was then developed that included Indians, Anglo-Indians, Americans and other nationalists. They all helped Mother by forming working parties to make bandages and paper bags, in which the leper-pills could be distributed easily. Mother was helped by another close friend, Margaret Mac Kenzie in her work with lepers.
CO-WORKERS
Gradually, in 1960, Blaikie returned to England. There in England, Ann Blaikie taking the help of her husband, John Southworth, Chairman of Leprosy relief charity and other friends from India and Britain, established a ‘Mother Teresa Committee’. They organized material help for the Missionaries of Charity. They took the responsibility of looking into the arrangement of donors of child welfare scheme for sponsoring orphan or the abandoned. Free samples of medicines, items suitable for India and money were sent for the dying, the clinics and the children’s home.
As the work increased, Mother felt that this committee should be properly constituted into an organization. And as result, in 1969, this committee was called as ‘Co-Workers’ (the association of helpers), which was affiliated to Missionaries of Charity.
Mother Teresa always advised her ‘Co-Workers’, "If you want to give love to others, first, give love to your own children your husband, and your wife." As the number of members of ‘Co-Workers’ grew into hundreds and thousands, Mother got alert about the holy work to become a business. By 1979, there were some 800,000 Co-Workers spread over five continents.
On March 26, Pope Paul VI recognized the religious constitution of ‘Co-Workers’. According to the constitution, co-workers are men, women, young people and children of all religion and denominations throughout the World who seek to love God in their fellowman through whole – hearted service to the poorest of the poor of all castes and creeds. They wish to unite themselves in a spirit of prayer and sacrifice with the work of Mother Teresa and Missionaries of Charity.
‘The Freedom of Religion Bill’ was produced in the Indian Parliament in 1978. It prevented the conversion to Christianity ‘by force, fraud, inducement or allurement’. It tried to discourage the work of foreign missionaries. Mother Teresa, without any hesitation, wrote to the then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai protesting against the Bill.
LINK FOR SICK AND SUFFERING CO-WORKERS
Taking one more step in the service to the people, a new society was formed in 1952 named as ‘Link for Sick and Suffering Co-Workers’. This society was an idea, which took shape after the meeting of a Belgian woman, Jacqueline-de Decker with Mother Teresa, in December, 1948. Jacqueline came to India to devote her life to the poor from one of Antwerp’s leading families.
Jacqueline had felt the same ‘Call of inner self’ at the age of 17 that she wanted to serve India’s poor. But her journey to India got postponed due to war. All doctors and nurses had left Antwerp and so Jacqueline remained back to give her invaluable medical help to the wounded. She showed courage in helping the resistance movement due to which she was awarded medal by King George VI.
She received the same second ‘call’ from God, like Mother Teresa, to serve the poor. They both had the same ideal. She was also called the ‘other self’ of Mother Teresa. She wanted to join Mother Teresa but fell severely ill. She suffered with a severe disease of the spine and went back to Antwerp. She was very much depressed by the news that she would not now travel back to India. But Mother Teresa’s inspiring and beautiful letters made Jacqueline spiritually attached to the small Convent in Calcutta. And thus, in January, 1953, she established the ‘Link for Sick and Suffering Co-Workers’. According to Mother, she wanted the paralyzed, the crippled, the incurables to join the Missionary of Charity by totally surrendering to God. In turn the sisters would have a sister each, who would pray, suffer, think, unite with her and becomes her second self.
In this manner, through the Link for Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, Mother with efficiency and perfection, achieved two goals:- one was the need for a kind of power house of prayer on the part of her Missionaries of Charity and the other was the need of the sick and suffering to find a meaning to their existence.
MEDICAL CO-WORKERS
In 1984, Mother Teresa took a decision to consult the doctors among her Co-Workers and advised them to form a special medical branch. Since then a group of doctors in Rome serving in various Sister’s Convents gathered once a month for prayer and reconsideration. They all discussed and probed into the different ethical and spiritual problems related to medical practice, especially abortion, euthanasia, birth control, sexual disorders, drug problems, alcoholic addiction, mental health and diseases due to poverty in many developing countries.
Mother used to attend these meetings sometimes and gave her fruitful advice to the doctors. She encouraged them by telling her own experiences, so that they gave their time and professional commitment to the service of the Missionaries of Charity and people they worked with in Rome. She always reminded the doctors that sick, lonely and disabled came with a hope to receive tender love and compassion. They did not need pity or sympathy, they needed love and affection.
Mother helped to develop network of medical Co-workers which spread worldwide. She had appointed Dr. Frances Co Di Raimondo, senior physician of Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Rome and his wife Gabriella, as international links for the medical Co-workers.
Every achievement of Mother Teresa was just one small progression on a long road. She was never still. She never sat back to savour one little breakthrough and her principle of meeting needs as they arose remained unaltered.
MOTHER’S WORK ON AIDS
In 1985, she received a letter from a patient of Dr. Richard Di Gioia, a physician in Washington D.C., who took care of a number of people suffering from AIDS in that area. The patient who had written the letter was himself not suffering from AIDS but he described about the suffering of many AIDS victim. Once more, Mother got concerned and saw Jesus in need of help in disguise of ‘Victims of AIDS.’
In June ,1985, during her visit to Washington, she visited AIDS patients at George Washington University Hospital. Accompanied by Dr. Di Gioia, she greeted each patient personally, asked about their families and advised them to pray. She asked many questions about AIDS, as to how the disease started, what were the causes and how could it be diagnosed and whether there was any cure or not.
Mother’s action started and in December she worked a ‘miracle in Manhattan’- a miracle that shocked the Americans. She set out to open a hospital in the Greenwich village at the East side of Manhattan for people who were victims of AIDS and whose family and friends had thrown them, leaving them to fend for themselves and to face a terrible and painful death.
Moreover, she visited New York’s Sing Sing prison and met Antonio Rivera, Jimmy Matos and Daryl Morse---- three tough young prisoners who had committed crimes of violence. These men were suffering with AIDS and faced a painful and isolated death behind bars. Mother immediately got into action and requested New York’s Governor, Mario Cuomo, who had previously refused the request, many a times, to release the three prisoners. The Governor himself signed a release order within 24-hours. The three prisoners were soon transferred to Manhattan hospital.
AIDS was an another form of poverty for her. She saw the victims of AIDS as the lepers of the west. AIDS victims were condemned as ‘unclean’ but they too needed love. In a speech to the National Council for International Health, she defined the greatest pain for AIDS victims as ‘the pain of the heart – of being unwanted and unloved, thrown away by society’.
The new hospital she established in New York was called ‘Gift of Love’. It was very much the same like Nirmal Hriday of Calcutta. Here the people can die in peace and felt that they are being loved.
But Mother and her Sisters faced with a common problem while working with dying AIDS patients. This problem was like that of Nirmal Hriday of Calcutta. It was the opposition from the people who lived in the neighborhood of the AIDS hospital. She wanted to open a second house for AIDS victims and people with other terminal diseases, and on June 13, 1986, she had a meeting with the United States President, Ronald Reagan at the White House where, the President approved her plan for the second AIDS house in America.
She was invited by Archbishop of Washington to open a new Convent, which was not as much a hospital but would be a "loving home where person with AIDS and other terminal diseases could come and find the care, compassion and peace they deserved as children of God". This home was to be a place for the forgotten, the abandoned and the homeless who faced the disease alone. It would have the capacity to accommodate women, children as well as men. This home was called the "Gift of Peace". It neither had any medical facility nor doctors nor any hospital facility but was a home for religious community who reached out to the suffering and homeless victims of terminal diseases.
Later on, Georgetown University Medical College joined the convents and provided all types of medical help to the patients. Finally on November 8, 1986, the "Gift of Peace" was opened amidst opposition and angry demonstrations by the neighbors and other people.
This Gift of Peace was a place different from Gift of Love. It maintained strict rules and a religious atmosphere. Visitors were permitted to enter between 4 to 5.30 p.m. Radio was allowed but no television. It was not a place like Gift of Love to entertain friends.
Even one churchman protested against the caring of Gay men as he thought AIDS came from immoral acts. Even after spreading the literature regarding AIDS, people were not convinced and created obstacles in the path of Sisters who were trying to bring love and care to suffering people. She continued to spread her message that AIDS should be seen as "a sign that God wants us to open our hearts and love for one another".
The work with AIDS patients was growing at a faster pace. In June, 1988, another Gift of Love was opened in San Francisco, and in March, 1989 a similar Gift of Love in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In December, 1989, an AIDS home was started by the Sisters in Denver, Colorado.
AIDS crisis busted in Los Angeles and Brothers were particularly doing a great work there. They were very much sad by the fact that even some doctors and nurses refused to work with people suffering from AIDS. It was really a horrible situation where people did not want to touch another fellow human being who was sick. One of the Brothers, started a day care facility in Oakland, the first of its kind in the country where the AIDS victims were welcomed with their families and people who tried to care for the victims. The Medical Co-Workers and Missionaries of Charity provided every possible help to the Brothers so that the suffering of the ‘Leprosy of the West’ i.e. AIDS could be lessened.
In October, 1986, after the opening of Gift of Peace Home in Washington, Mother undertook a tour of East Africa. She wanted to reach the famine-affected people of Sudan and planned to open up a centre in the south to care for some of the victims. In Khartoum, she prayed for the victims of the three-year-old civil war in Southern Sudan. From here she went to Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania and then flew to Kenya for visiting the Sisters who were working with destitute and other needy people in the Mathari valley, one of the poorest areas of Nairobi. But an unfortunate incident occurred. The moment the plane picked up speed to take off from the airstrip at Hombolo near Dodoma in Central Tanzania, instead of going up, it went over the Sisters and the people, who had come to see her off. In less than fifteen minutes, all was over. Five people were dead and two wounded. Three children, the manager of the leprosy centre and one Sister, M. Serene were dead. Mother Teresa was deeply affected by the gruesome accident and thought that her coming was behind the accident.
FAMILY-PLANNING PROGRAMME
Mother Teresa was always against abortion and sterilization. She did not accept the programme of sterilization in India under Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s rule. For her, even a leper has every right to give birth. While receiving an honorary Doctorate of Medicine from Rome’s Catholic University on December 7,1981,she said, "Abortion is nothing but the fear of the child---- fear to have to feed one more child, to have to educate one more child, to have to love one more child. Therefore, the child must die."
She encouraged her Sisters to advise poor people about the ‘Rhythm Method’ to control birth instead of abortion. She battled against abortion and advised every body for adoption. She also started giving information under the programme of ‘Holy Family-Planning’. By 1967, a systematic natural family-planning programme was established by the Missionaries of Charity with the help of a young Mauritius woman.
The achievements of Mother Teresa and the statistics of her huge work were on her fingertips. But still she would not pause for a second to draw breath. She was a person who at once understood another person’s urgent need and reached to that person to help him in a simple and direct way. If she met a starving child she would never waste her time in studying the cause of starvation; instead, she would offer the child milk immediately followed by her long-term care for the child.
Essentially hard working and practical, Mother Teresa, was totally uncompromising with the social status given to Missionaries of Charity. For her, the Missionaries of Charity were not social workers. The mere word, ‘social workers’ caused pain to her. She wanted her Missionaries of Charity to be ‘Contemplative in the World’.
For Mother, charity was on the top of her list of work. Charity was to be expressed in ‘words, deeds, thoughts, desires and feelings, for Jesus went about doing good’. Her work expanded at a great speed within India. The necessity for aid increased due to an expanding range of work : - Clinics for those suffering from tuberculosis, ante–natal clinics, general dispensaries, mobile leprosy clinics, night shelters for homeless men, homes for abandoned children, homes for the dying and the destitute, nursery classes and crèches, primary schools, secondary schools, provision for further education, feeding programmes of villages for lepers, commercial schools, training in carpentry, metal work, embroidery, needle work or other skills, child-care and home-management and aid in the event of emergencies and disasters arising from riots, epidemics, famine and flooding.
Though Mother Teresa was getting weaker day by day and ran a temperature regularly every morning, she was constantly busy in expanding her work. She was invited to open 130 more foundations of Missionaries of Charity throughout the world. With a spiritual intention, she undertook the great work of laying foundations for such a large number of congregations in places as far as Caracas, El Salvador, Manila and Liverpool. She also decided to open 25 ‘tabernacles’ (house of worship or temple) in honor of Jesus through out the world. She celebrated the opening of 25 new houses with ‘tabernacles’ as ‘Jubilee of Jesus’. The unending spirit and vigor of Mother saw many houses of Missionaries of Charity being opened in communist countries or Iron-Curtain countries.
Mother Teresa never stood with the rich societies who did not know how to use and enjoy the riches God had given them. She felt that if there were poor in the world, it was not because God had made them poor but because ‘you and I do not share enough’.
Once in 1970, on her way to Mauritius, Mother Teresa got hurt in her shoulder. She decided to spend her resting period in a quiet atmosphere of a Carmelite Convent in Rome. Here, she got an idea that when any Sister becomes sick or older, she still could play an important role in the Convent by spending more time in prayer. This idea gave birth to one more branch of Missionaries of Charity, which would include the sick and elderly Sisters. Sometimes few people suggested to Mother Teresa that the work of the Sisters was not enough. But Mother always said that numbers were not important. Her work depended not on mathematical calculation but principles of compassion. She advised her Sisters, "Begin in a small way. Don’t look for numbers. Every small act of love for the unwanted and poor is important to Jesus."
Mother Teresa’s action of love directly shaped the Sisters. The Sisters carefully observed Mother bathing sores, cleaning floors and pressing babies to her heart with unlimited energy, softness and joy. She always opposed fund-raising for her work and refused the offers of regular income that started coming to her. She never wanted that the work of love to become a business.
By the year, 1979, there were 158 foundations spread throughout the world, 1,187 professed Sisters, 411 movies and 120 postulants. For the Sisters at Calcutta, the streets seem to lead them to every man’s door. Outside India, Sisters traveled alongwith Mother Teresa, holding a small luggage containing parcels and cardboard boxes to wherever the poorest of poor waited urgently for them. Mother Teresa had once remarked, "If there are poor on the moon, we shall go there too."
CONTRIBUTION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
On February 1, 1965, the Missionaries of Charity in India was given the permission to spread their work outside Calcutta and was formally appointed as a Society of Pontifical Right on May 2, 1965. Her Convent was granted the Papal Decree of Praise.
On May 2, 1965, the Missionaries of Charity in India, was formally appointed as a society of pontifical right.
In mid-July, 1965, Mother Teresa left for Venezuela with five Sisters to work within South American culture, training and teaching especially the woman about their own dignity and practical skills. They opened a house there for giving free services to the poor, sick, conducted funeral services, washed and cleaned the old and fed the hungry.
Mother Teresa helped the poor in Rome in 1968. The Sisters settled in a very small house amongst city’s poor. This was her another wonderful acts of love. The Sisters entered slum areas and helped the refugees from Sicily and Sardinia teaching them skilled work.
The same year, Mother Teresa was in Tanzania, the land of her dreams of childhood. She wanted to go to Africa and help the poor people but her dreams came true only after a prolonged wait.
She was invited the very same year to visit Australia and help the drug-addicts, alcoholics, prisoners who were in need of rehabilitation and young teenagers crying for love and affection.
In July, 1970, Mother Teresa and her five Sisters went to Jordan to help out a large number of refugees living in extreme conditions in camps. She also visited England that year to open a house in London. She was shocked, at the conditions of people staying in slums leading an animal-like life. People were sleeping under the tarpaulins and many people were staying under the railway arches. She protested against the tragic fate of those people in London staying in the most inhuman conditions.
The Missionaries of Charity opened Homes of Compassion for deserted men and women, knocked on the doors of the isolated and old people and touched areas of human suffering, which others neglected.
In the month of October in the same year, Bangladesh was hit by one of the worst and disastrous cyclones, leaving more than 300 thousand people dead. Mother rushed to Bangladesh with her Missionaries of Charity team to help the victims.
On January 4, 1970, Mother Teresa received a sad letter from her sister, Aga, telling her about their mother’s health, which day by day deteriorated. She weighed only 39 kilos and the living condition was terrible for both Drana and Aga. She also received letters from Drana that she wished to see her family and Mother Teresa (Agnes) again before her death. Mother went to Belgrade in the year, 1970, on being invited by the Yugoslavian Red Cross. She was very close to her home and went to Skopje.
Mother tried her level best to bring the whole family together. But Lazar was on exile in Italy and so his movements were restricted. He could not enter Albania. Moreover although the Albanian government permitted her to go and meet her mother and sister but they also warned her that after entering Albania, there was no guarantee that she would be able to leave Albania again. Mother Teresa with deep regret and sacrifice decided not to go to Albania to her mother, for the sake of the poor of the world. Later on July 12, 1972, Drana Bojaxhiu died in Arans, Albania. Her sister, Aga also died on August 25, 1973 in Tirana.
In 1971, three million lives were lost due to war declared by West Pakistan. Mother Teresa and her team was requested by the Bangladesh Government to help 200 thousand women who were raped and millions of homeless people living in terrible conditions. She rushed with two teams of Missionaries of Charity at the request. She set up one house in Dhaka and many more in Bangladesh, to take care of these women and girls. She opened dispensaries and provided practical training to woman who felt helpless without their husbands. She taught the women to make puffed rice, which they could sell in the market so that children did not go hungry.
In 1971, the Missionaries of Charity also set up their simple Convent in the centre of South Bronx area of New York. The Sisters helped the children, visited the lonely, sick and the unwanted.
The same year, Mother not only took four Sisters to Belfast, a place full of hatred and unlawful acts but also she and her Sisters worked there in association with a small group of Anglican nuns. They quietly helped the local people and their children.
Mother Teresa was the mother of millions of poor throughout the world. Though on personal front, she had to compromise with her desire to serve her mother and sister, who were alone in Tirana, suffering from disease and financial problem.
The strong winds at the coast of Venezuela resulted in large number of homeless people in 1972. The Sisters helped the people in repairing their homes.
Though Mother Teresa then traveled frequently outside India, her soul was with each of the Sisters at Calcutta.
Mother with her Sisters, in 1973, went to Ethiopia to reach out to the victims of a dreadful drought in Northern Ethiopia.
By 1973, Mother had established the Sisters foundations in Jordan, England, the United States, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Israel, the Yemen, Peru, and various other places. Mother Teresa even set up a home for unwanted children, paralyzed young adults and old men and women, in Peru. During this period, Brothers had settled in the overcrowded alleyways of underworld Saigon and were taking care of hundreds of unsheltered people, crippled, disabled and retarded and who had no one to take care of them. The same year, Mother Teresa went to Gaza to help the Arabic-speaking people living in Israeli occupied territory. They struggled to remove the fear and sorrow of people who had lost hope.
In June, 1976, in New York, Cardinal Cooke, in Mother’s presence, blessed the new branch of Missionaries of Charity. Sister Nirmala was made the leader of this new branch who was a pioneer of the first foundation outside India in Venezuela. At first, the branch, was known as ‘Sisters of the Word’ but later in 1977, it was renamed ‘Missionaries of Charity, Contemplative.’
Mother Teresa and her group of Sisters rushed to the state of Andhra Pradesh in 1977, to help the victims of a devastating cyclone, which left two million people homeless and several thousands dead.
On May 6, 1978, Pope Paul VI invited Mother Teresa together with the Sisters in Rome and a group of Italian Co-Workers. Mother was over-whelmed by the comment of Pope Paul VI that he felt an unworthy servant of Mother Teresa. He died after a few months of his meeting with Mother Teresa.
The same year, Mother Teresa established a branch for men in a slum area of Rome. Due to Brother Andrew’s refusal, it was kept separate from Missionary Brothers. The branch was also called ‘Brothers of the Word’ under the Roman prelate.
On March 28, 1978, Mother visited Yugoslavia at the invitation of the Catholic bishops. Here in this Iron-Curtain country Mother was famous and her message was widely spread. Skopje, her hometown welcomed her royally and joyfully. She opened a house in Skopje as well as in Zagreb. This year saw 2,194 bales of provisions shipped from Great Britain alone. One million tablets of Dapsone (drug for leprosy) were dispatched monthly. So great was the volume of material that a perfect organization was required to handle it. Mother always avoided funds as they divert the real work of love towards poor.
In April, 1981, Mother visited Japan at the invitation of the "Japan Family Life Association". On May 24, the same year, she opened a house of the Missionaries of Charity, in Sanya district of Tokyo, that was famous for the number of alcoholics who met there. The Missionaries of Charity opened eight more foundations in India and another seventeen in America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia including a house in Tokyo and one more house in the Iron country, Germany’s the then East Berlin.
May 24, 1981 was the 50th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s vows as a religious soul. The Mother House in Calcutta, over 200 houses of the Missionaries of Charity and groups of Co-workers around the world celebrated the day with prayers and thanksgiving. By the year, 1981, she had opened twenty-six houses, eighteen of them outside India.
Mother Teresa’s love for poor made her known throughout the world. Her work and character made a strong impact on people all around the globe. In her respect, over a hundred thousand school children in Denmark go without a glass of milk everyday, so that others might eat. Eight hundred thousand capsules of Lampren were sent annually from Switzerland to the lepers in West Bengal. At Mother Teresa’s request, five thousand tonnes of high-quality processed food was dispatched at a week’s notice for the famine-hit people of Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Meanwhile, on July 3, the same year, Lazar Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa’s brother, died of cancer of the lungs in Palermo, Italy. Mother could never meet her family members and that regret always remained with her. But she vowed to herself that she would do something for her birthplace, to bring peace and love among the people of Albania.
In the next year, Mother attended an International chapter of Co-workers from more than thirty countries as far as Iceland, Lesotho, Mauritius and Zimbabwe, awaiting her guidance, inspiration and approval.
In December, 1983, another house was opened in East Germany, in Karl Marx. Mother believed that poverty of the people in communist countries was worse than any other country. The people were devoid of the knowledge of the love of God for all men. Despite her weak body, she wanted to remove this poverty by knowledge and love.
Mother had a dream of visiting China in 1984. The Chinese government being communist discouraged her in the beginning but at her repeated request to bring a little hope and encouragement in the heart of depressed people, the government allowed her to visit China. In 1984, she visited Poland instead of China.
By Christmas, Mother got very much worried and concerned regarding the famine in Africa. On Christmas Day, with high fever, she left for Ethiopia. She visited the five Missionary of Charity houses in the country and organized wide spread famine relief centers.
She met Bob Geld, a rock singer in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Bob’s album, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas ?’ raised more than £6,000,000 for famine relief in Ethiopia. She accepted a copy of the recorded disc and told Bob that what he could do, she could not do and what she could do, he could not do. As long as their heart and mind were clear, the God would certainly help them. Bob had donated the whole amount of £6,000,000 to Mother for relief work.
Thus, the Missionaries of Charity spread out largely all over the world, spreading love and their magic healing powers to all. Apart from these visits, Mother made many other visits to different parts of the world for other reasons, besides setting up branches of her institutions.
HER VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA
In November, 1988, after many years of waiting and delays, she finally landed in South Africa, which was undergoing through political tension. But that country gave her an ecstatic welcome. People ranging from Mrs. Harry Oppenheimer and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to the humblest of town-people, people from various fields like political, social and racial, all rushed to see and meet her.
She made it clear to everyone that her mission was on the invitation of Roman Catholic Archbishop George Daniel. She explained that the South Africans had no idea about what apartheid (the system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race in force in South Africa <1948-91 >) was; so, she was invited to this country for spreading love and affection.
She was not at all afraid to say, "White, black, green, yellow, whatever, we are all children of God, created for greater things, to love and to be loved."
She selected Khayelitsha for opening a house of Missionaries of Charity. Khayelitsha was a very big township of black people present on a wide range of sand dunes outside Cape Town. She planned to leave four Sisters here so that they would serve not the colored or white but the poor. Of these four Sisters, two were Indians, one was a British and the fourth was from Rwanda. She wanted the Sisters to stay together in harmony in a colored township where they could make people realize that this type of harmony should exist between people of different races.
With an extraordinary pace, Mother achieved whatever she wanted in that racial town and left it giving obvious joy to people living at the edge of gang-wars and political fighting. She had tried to bring some smiles on these suffering people.
She toured Port Elizabeth, Durban and the Winterveld area, north of Pretoria and advised the people over there to deepen their faith in prayer. She believed that only through prayer the people could see that there was no religion, no caste, no color, no nationality, no riches and no poverty. Her speeches were felt as balm for the wounds of a country in trouble. She spread a political message that was completely different. The message was one of harmony and human togetherness based on sharing.
‘The Cape Times’ commented on Mother Teresa that unlike many social workers she did not waste time on sitting and condemning people or the problems existing in that country. But she came for fulfilling the needs of those suffering, gave affection and set up a project to help the people. Such a respectable person she was that none ever questioned about her visit to South Africa.
In winter, Mother had already planned for making a second house in Veld before leaving South Africa on November 15, 1988. Her next stop was Nairobi. People who accompanied her were surprised by the joy on her face. That was a joy of warmth that brought love into people’s lives that kept them going.
HER VISIT TO USSR
On December 8, the same year, Mother Teresa was invited by the Soviet Peace Committee in Moscow to come to the then USSR and sign an agreement for a new foundation. She arrived at Moscow at 11 p.m. on December 15. She was very tired but was very happy to be there. A car was kept ready to take the ‘Lady of Peace’ to the chapel to attend the Mass. Afterwards she began to give her talks at the Peace Committee. Immediately, a decision was taken to open a house in Moscow and settle four Sisters there.
On December 7, a killer earthquake in Armenia caused the death of about fifty-five thousand people. More than ten thousand people were being treated in hospitals and many more were left homeless. Mother felt that she was being called by the suffering people of Armenia. She could not ignore their needs and on December 18, she left Moscow for Armenia, after meeting many people who got the news of her arrival through Soviet television. After three hours of journey by air, she landed at Armenia and was given a warm welcome by the Vice President of the Armenian Peace Committee. She was taken to the house of the Armenian Patriarch who postponed an important meeting with his bishops to welcome her with great love, warmth and affection. Mother requested him to take a Catholic priest with her to Armenia.
She visited the children’s hospital where they were taken care of after the earthquake. She spent time with each child praying for them and giving them miraculous medals. Her presence brought a renewed hope in the hearts of people who had lost everything and sometimes everybody they had loved.
Mother attended the Mass in a chapel in the Armenian Patriarch house the very next day and visited a hospital that was over-crowded with injured people.
After the visit, she received a warm welcome by the Soviet Prime Minister Mr. Nikollai Ryzhakov alongwith the Foreign Minister and the head of the Armenian Communist party. She told the dignitaries that she has brought no gold or silver but hoped to offer the help of her Sisters in the process of relief and rehabilitation. She soon received the permission to bring four more sisters to Armenia and a catholic priest to accompany the Sisters giving spiritual discourses. It was for the first time that a Catholic priest had arrived at Armenia after seventy years.
Immediately afterwards, Mother left the Armenian capital, Yerevan for a five hour car journey to Leninakan, a city which was totally destroyed by the earthquake. Her path to the city was full of coffins lying on either side. Rescue teams were searching for the injured and dead from the rubbles. Mother made a very careful study of requirements and from there she returned to Moscow on December 20. In an interview to Moscow television, she told that her Sisters would come to give tender love and care to the needy people of Armenia and Leninakan.
The very next day, four Sisters arrived at Moscow from Rome. Mother welcomed them at the airport happily and took them to their home, a hospital, which would give them accommodation. Mother Teresa stayed in Moscow to settle her Sisters comfortably so that they could carry out their work smoothly among the poor and sufferers. She toured with them to Armenia, without taking any rest for a single moment. In Moscow she met with Mr. Chazov, the Minister of Health. He expressed deep gratitude and respect for her and told her that he would pray for her and her Sisters.
By 1990, there were some three million co-workers working hard to do small things with great love throughout the world. One more new branch for lay people was opened called ‘The Lay Missionaries of Charity’. This body contained both married and single, who wanted to serve the poorest of the poor.
The years 1990 and 1991 were significant in the life of Mother Teresa. They proved to be fruitful in terms of opening of houses and other foundations in communist countries. By 1990, she opened five houses in the Soviet Union – two in Moscow, two in Armenia and one in Georgia. She was requested by the Soviet Union Peace Committee to open another four Missionaries of Charity foundations in the USSR. In Cuba, she had already opened four houses of Missionary of Charity. Cuban President, Fidel Castro requested her to increase the number of houses of Missionaries of Charity from four to seven in his country.
The Missionaries of Charity opened the first soup kitchen in Budapest after more than forty-five years. In Josefstown, they opened a small house and provided lunch for the older, homeless and disabled people. On April 30, 1990, Mother arrived in Bucharest, Romania. She wanted to meet those children who were suffering from AIDS. Romania at that time was undergoing through tremendous political changes and unrest. The people were passing their days in fear and sorrow. Many human lives were lost. After meeting the children, Mother met the Prime Minister of Romania, Roman and Foreign Minister Serak, and was all set to establish children’s home.
About 100 thousand children were orphaned, forgotten and condemned to institutions under the Ceausescu Regime. Many were infected with HIV and others were physically and mentally handicapped. They were severely suffering from malnutrition, scabies and rickets and were locked away in ‘Homes’, which neither had healthy atmosphere nor adequate medical facilities were provided to these sick children. The Sisters who arrived from India had never seen such a terrible condition of destruction and deprivation of innocent lives. The Co-Workers delivered urgent materials to the Sisters in Romania. One of the Co-Workers described the condition of children with horror. He had seen small children lying in a pool of vomit and urine, on beds without blankets or sheets.
The new Romanian regime supported the work of Missionaries of Charity. With their help, the Sisters opened children’s home temporarily in a sports pavilion on the outskirts of Bucharest. They arranged rows of cots with clean blankets and fresh sheets. They helped sixty children from the orphanage and made them settle down in their new home. The children were provided with things that were unknown to them, like, food, new clothes, smiles, love and affection.
Though that home was a temporary one, the Sisters did not have to wait for long. While coming to Romania from Rome on plane, Mother Teresa met a businessman who enquired about her visit. The moment she finished her explanation, the businessman promised to fund the construction of a new, purpose – built home.
Gradually, Mother was taking over all the communist countries under her grace and love. Her achievements were unending, especially opening foundations and home in politically disturbed countries, and was seen as a milestone in the history of charity work. She was invited by Czechoslovakia and on May 13, she received a warm welcome in the township of Nita, in central Czechoslovakia. She opened two houses there, which attracted people in large numbers to welcome the arrival of the Sisters in their white ‘sheets’. The older generation of local people had great faith in the Sisters, even after suffering and living under tragic circumstances. They greeted the Sisters with songs and tears in their eyes.
Thus, Eastern Europe opened the doors to the Missionaries of Charity. Mother still felt a deep longing within her inner self to reach out to the people of another big country, China. Opening a house in China was one of her longstanding dreams.
CONTRIBUTION TO HOMELAND
She had another dream of setting up a Missionary of Charity foundation in her homeland, Albania, which held a special attraction for her. Albania was the poorest European country. It was under the communist regime who were ‘Legally atheist’ and had banned religious practices. Those who tried to follow religion were put into prison for three to ten years. Since 1967, over two thousand places of worship were closed down. Most of them were mosques, some six hundred orthodox churches and 327 former catholic churches were used as sports stadium and other official purposes.
The catholic churches were the primary targets for closing down as they put resistance to communism. By 1990, over 100 out of 160 catholic priests had died in prison or in labor camps under communist regime in the first decade of communism. Nobody was allowed to travel without government’s permission even to a family wedding.
Building a church was impossible in Albania. Parents as well as children were banished from praying or keeping Bibles in their homes and school. As in Romania, forty years of communism removed basic moral and spiritual values and in this way, God was effectively thrown out of Albania.
Mother Teresa had been battling quietly against communism for a long time and had taken a vow to bring her Jesus back into her homeland, Albania. And finally by May, 1990, Albania’s communist regime had to lift the twenty-three-years old ban. People were relieved and released from prison and were allowed to follow religious work.
Mother had approached to the President of Albania, Mr. Ramiz Alia, to bring Sisters to Albania who would bring tender love and care for the Albanians. As per the government’s rules, this was Law avoiding but she was ready to be a law–avoider for God. By February 1992, she was given permission to take her Sisters to Albania.
The year 1991, had been the year of revolution for the suffering Albanians. With all energy and spiritual power, on February 21, 1991, Albanian crowds had broken down a big statue of Enver Hoxha, a symbol of hatred of Albania’s Stalinist past.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital of Albania, Tirana to fight for democracy and freedom. Mother had already planned her visit to Alban
Mother Teresa’s actions became the focus of a growing interest for the people of the world and the media. She was invited frequently to take part in Church congresses, public-meetings, seminars, conferences, inter-church gatherings and peace-talks. It seemed that there was something in her, which people of various faiths valued and respected. Christians referred to her as a saint. Some ardent followers of Hindu saw in her ‘rein carnation of Jesus’. Muslims respected her as an ‘evolved spirit’; and people of all religious beliefs and religious groups recognized her as a ‘holy person’.
In the words of former Indian President, V.V. Giri, "she was among those emancipated souls who have transcended all barriers of race, religion, creed and nation". The Muslim President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain, believed her to be a ‘saint’.
The famous British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge had a deep respect for her. He said, "Words cannot convey how beholden I am to her. She has given me a whole new vision of what being a Christian means; of the amazing power of love, and how in one dedicated soul it can burgeon to cover the whole world."
She was known as ‘Ma’ or ‘Mother’ in Kolkata. She had nothing to give to the poors of Kolkata except love and affection. The exceptional growth and singular spirit of work by her led Archbishop Perier to finally announce that "Manifestly the finger of God is here".
After the establishment of Missionary Brothers of Charity, the first leader of all the Brothers, Brother Andrew commented on his relationship with her as:– "Actually we are very different characters. Apart from the obvious factor, she is one with the very extraordinary ‘Charisma’. She is called a ‘living saint’ and she is a very wonderful person."
On September 8, 1989, Mother suffered a serious blockage in her heart, which was functioning on only one valve. Her poor health caused great concern throughout the world.
From Rome, Pope John Paul II sent her a message of personal concern. "Informed of your sudden illness, I hasten to assure you of my prayers and spiritual closeness."
