|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Mother Teresa - legend in her own lifetime by W. T. A. Leslie Fernando The 6th death anniversary of Mother Teresa, an embodiment of Christian love and charity falls on September 5. She was the founder of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order that spread so rapidly all over the world. A legend in her lifetime itself, she passed away on September 5, 1997.
It was due to the untiring efforts of the missionaries that the Catholic faith spread all over the world. Even today the missionaries undergo many difficulties, make sacrifices, adjust themselves to various climates and do social service in far away countries in the name of Christ. Mother Teresa was an outstanding and shining example of such a missionary who served the Lord among the lowliest in streets and slums. She was a symbol of untiring commitment to the poor and the suffering. She was born to Albanian parents on August 26, 1910 at Skopje Yugoslavia (now Macedonia). Her lay name was Agnas Gonxha Boajaxhiu. At the age of 18, she submitted to the call of God, left Skopje for Ireland and joined the order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loretto. She took her vows as a nun on March 26, 1931. As the majority of Loretto nuns in Ireland served in India, Mother Teresa got a teaching appointment in Loretto Convent, Calcutta. She took her final vows as a Loretto nun in 1937. Congregation In 1946 she got a call within and was inspired by the Holy Spirit to serve among the suffering in the stinking slums in Calcutta. In 1948 she got the permission of the Church authorities to form the congregation of sisters of "The Missionaries of Charity". In order to help the sick she underwent a four months nurses training course to prevent and cure diseases at the hospital of the Medical Missionary Sisters in Patna. When she returned to Calcutta she began in a humble way by working in the slums and visiting the homes of the sick to treat them. She helped the poor children to wash, clean and care for themselves. She also began to teach 5 children in streets of Calcutta to read and write under a tree. A few days later she was provided with a building. In 1950, when the Holy See in Vatican approved her order, 12 nuns had joined the congregation. When Mother Teresa established the order of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity on October 17, 1950, she introduced the white cotton saree with a blue border as the official costume of the congregation. They were to serve the sick, the disabled, the destitute, the unwanted and the helpless. In 1952, Mother Teresa opened a house in Calcutta called the "Home of the Dying Destitute" to provide a happy death for those on the verge of dying by deadly diseases like cholera, T.B. and dysentry. Mother Teresa and her nuns gathered the dying from the streets of Calcutta, cleaned them, gave medical attention and took care of them until they passed away. Later Mother Teresa set up an institution to look after the unwanted and uncared for children called "Home for the Child". Some of the inmates in this centre were picked up by Mother Teresa and other nuns and others were sent from hospitals, prisons and by the police. Likewise in 1957 Mother Teresa set up a colony for the treatment of lepers called "The Peace Colony". As time went on the services of the Missionaries of Charity expanded rapidly to cover so many other fields. Today they have established institutions to nurse the sick, to give shelter to the abandoned, to care for those subject to earthquakes and floods and attend to those suffering from Aids. In due course the services of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity spread to countries outside India as well. Mother Teresa was invited to open up institutions all over the world. Her first entity outside India was established in Venezula in 1965. Today institutions of the Missionaries of Charity are found in 105 countries with 569 branches. In Sri Lanka they have institutions in Colombo, Kandy and Moratuwa. At the time of the death of Mother Teresa, there were over 4000 nuns, 400 priests and brothers and over hundreds of thousands of lay volunteers who had joined Mother Teresa to serve the poorest of the poor. Charity When Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Prize she used all the cash award that came with it for her charity work. In 1964 when Pope Paul VI came to India he gave his ceremonial limousine to Mother Teresa. She immediately raffled it to finance her leper colony. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
