Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa is the most famous and at the same time the most controversial Catholic nun of the 20th century.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (her real name) was born on August 27, 1910 in Skopje or Skopje, a city in southeastern Yugoslavia (which was part of the Turkish Empire at the time) to an Albanian mother and father, Nikola, of unknown origin. leading to a debate that Agnesa, even as Mother Teresa, never bothered to resolve in her life. Both of her parents were born in Skopje, was all Agnes’s relative Pina Markovska said about the ongoing dispute over whether she was Macedonian or Albanian. But the millions of her admirers care little what nationality she belonged to. In reality, Macedonia and neighboring Albania did not even exist when Agnes was born. However, today Skopje is the capital of Macedonia. She had an older brother and sister whom she was attached to in childhood, as well as her mother. When Agnes was seven years old (1917), her father Nikola died, leaving the family in dire financial straits. Agnes was served by Sacred Heart Parish, a denomination of the Catholic Church. She was so influenced by the religious environment of the parish that at the young age of twelve she decided that she wanted to be a nun. At the age of fourteen, she learned about the Irish Order of Sisters of Loreto. She went to Ireland in 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but soon after she decided to come to India to join the Sisters of Loreto. It is not recorded what inspired her to come to India, but she must have learned that the Loreto Sisters were working in India. She arrived in India on January 61, 1929. She was eighteen years old at the time and a short, frail girl (four feet ten inches). After her arrival she was sent to Darjeeling to teach at the Loreto Convent. Before coming to India she had learned English; and she had acquired notions of Bengali. She started out teaching history and geography to third-year students. On May 24, 1931, she took her vows as a nun and changed her name to Teresa, borrowing the name of a French nun, Therese Martin. To avoid confusion, she changed the spelling of her to the Spanish version of her ‘Teresa’.

From Darjeeling, Teresa was sent to the Loreto School for Girls (Entally) in Calcutta, again as a history and geography teacher. From there she was sent to teach at St. Mary’s in Calcutta and, in her own time, she became principal of the school. She worked at this school for sixteen years. During these years she learned to speak, read and write Bengali. From the window of her room at St. Mary’s School, she could see the vast expanse of the Moti Jheel slum, where thousands of poor Calcutta lived without adequate sanitation and medical facilities. She was concerned to see these unfortunate members of humanity. Later, during a train journey from Darjeeling to Calcutta, where she had held an annual retreat, she “went through a spiritual discernment, which made her realize that her vocation was to serve the poorest of the poor.” “. On August 16, 1946, Teresa left for Patna to train as a nurse with Mother Denger; the medical nun who had started the Order to cure the sick There Teresa decided that she would launch her own Order which would be called the Missionary Sisters of Charity. An ‘Order’ in Christian parlance is a body or society of people living in concert under the same religious, moral and social regulation. A person who joins the religious Order is ‘ordained’. She discarded her black and white Christian nun attire and began wearing a white sari with a blue border; head covered with a tiny white cap and on her left shoulder hung a small black crucifix. All Sisters of Charity now wear this dress and can be identified by this simple yet unique outfit.

Upon his return to Calcutta, he began his mission of mercy in the Moti Jheel area. Sister Teresa would soon become a mother to the masses. She started by opening a small house, the ‘Nirmal Hirday’ (a house with a good heart). This was the house for the dying who had no one to care for them. In 1952, the house moved to Kalighat. Mother Teresa began collecting funds to create new ways of serving the poor and oppressed. Shortly afterwards she opened a shed in Dhaba where she stayed and cared for suffering children. It was followed by leper homes in Belgachia and Titagarh, all located in Calcutta and its suburbs. She also launched a Mobile Leper Clinic to help those affected by leprosy in remote areas of Howrah, Tilijala and other areas. It must be remembered that leprosy has been a special concern for Christian missionaries who are inspired by the same Jesus Christ who healed lepers with his ‘miraculous powers’.

In 1955, Mother Teresa opened ‘Shishu Bhawan’, a home for orphans and abandoned children. The older children were sent to one of the schools run by the Missionaries of Charity and the younger ones were kept at ‘Shishu Bhawan’. The children received food and clothing. Many of them were given to foreign couples for adoption. In 1963, she founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers to assist the Sisters of Charity in her work. She was friendly with the media and encouraged correspondents and journalists to visit her. She was able to expand her charitable work with amazing speed and in many countries. Her diminutive figure and wrinkled face became one of the most familiar faces of the 20th century. Time magazine for August 1983 published a profile of Mother Teresa and also some statistics: 2,000 Sisters and 400 Brothers working on 257 bases in at least 152 countries; 70 Homes caring for 4,000 children and managing at least 1,000 adoptions each year; 154 slum schools feeding 50,000 children; 81 Homes that care for 13,000 dying indigents. It is claimed that these statistics are now drastically out of date and that there are at least 4,000 Sisters working in some 561 missions spread over 180 countries around the world.

In the 1970s, Mother Teresa added AIDS patients to her mission of charity and care. In 1986, she opened the ‘City of Peace’ in Washington, DC to care for and help AIDS patients. She actually opened several centers in the so-called developed countries of Europe and North America as well as those in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. When asked by a correspondent ‘why does she open centers in developed countries where there is hardly any poverty? ‘Poverty of spirit,’ she answered.

Mother Teresa had become an Indian citizen in 1950 and began calling herself an Indian. Her government, in turn, filled her with privileges and honors. She was issued a ‘red passport’ which is reserved for diplomats. Upon receiving it, she said, “It is a gift from the Government of India. They have been very helpful.” Her honors came in quick succession: Padmashree (1962); Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (January 1971); John F. Kennedy International Award, (September 1971); Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding (1972); Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (1973); Nobel Peace Prize (1979); Bharat Rama (1980); Order of Merit, from Queen Elizabeth (1983); Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee (1987); United States Congressional Gold Medal (June 1997).

Individuals, the business sector and even governments have been its generous donors. Tatas, Lever Brothers, Jet Airways are some of the Indian corporate sector who have donated millions of thousands of rupees to Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity to ‘spiritualize’ her billions. An extended network in most countries of the world that provides housing, clothing, food and medical care to thousands of needy and destitute people required money and Mother Teresa got what her mission required without asking.

However, it was not praise and glorification all the time. He had to face a lot of criticism. Many have expressed reservations about the proselytizing work his organization has allegedly carried out in the name of altruism. Puri’s Shankracharya, Nischalanand Saraswati, in a scathing attack on Mother Teresa said that: “She dedicates herself to conversion in the name of manav Seva (service to humanity).” In response to this accusation, she did not deny it but said, “Not even Almighty God can convert unless he is warmed by that person.” She has also frankly confessed: “My life is dedicated to Christ. It is for him that I breathe and see. I cannot bear the pain when people call me a social worker. If I had been a social worker, I would have left a long time ago.” . She is also accused of giving unclaimed children up for adoption solely to Catholic couples.

Many Bengalis have lamented the negative image of Kolkata and by extension the country that the association with the Catholic nun made inevitable. It has been said that his extraordinary fame in itself made the “wrapper” of India a place of aesthetic devastation: disease, poverty, misery and sloth. Calcutta’s contribution to the Indian Renaissance, Indian art, literature and music and the freedom movement is unrivaled. Describing this city as a big sewer and consequently getting the nickname ‘Saint of the Sewers’ is nothing more than smearing a big city. His opposition to contraception and abortion invited ridicule. The most devastating and detailed criticism of Mother Teresa came from the writer Christopher Hitchens. He questioned her sources and use of funds, “her deeply orthodox views on a variety of issues, and the ‘imperialist’ underpinnings of her evangelizing mission. In addition to denouncing her role as savior of the conscience of the world’s rich, he has tried to ‘expose’ what he thinks is the cultural myth that has entered the apotheosis of the nun as messiah of the oppressed”. Similar charges have been documented on Celluloid in the film Hell’s Angel, which was broadcast by the BBC in November 1994.

The beatification of Mother Teresa on October 19, 2003 gave rise to another controversy. For beatification it must be proved that he or she was capable of performing ‘miracles’. In this case, a tribal girl named Monika Besra was ‘cured’ of a cancerous growth on her stomach by placing a ‘miraculous medal’ bearing the image of Mother Teresa on her stomach. The incident occurred on September 5, 1998 according to the spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity. Overnight, Monika became famous and rich. She was flown to the Vatican as proof of the ‘miracle’ during the beatification ceremony attended by 250,000 people. Monika converted to Christianity after the ‘miracle’. Another ‘miracle’ and Mother Teresa will be declared a saint. Prabir Ghose, founder of the Science and Rational Society of India suggests to the Missionaries of Charity: “Why don’t you close your Nirmal Hridayas and all the other homes that provide medical services to the sick and destitute and open a huge factory manufacturing of medals?” He calls Monika Besra’s ‘miracle’ ‘one of the world’s biggest lies of modern times, unflinchingly believed and spread by profit-seeking media.’ By the way, beatification in the Catholic religion (which means blessing of the soul of the deceased by the Pope) is not as rare as it is claimed. She will be number 1,319 in the line of those previously beatified. Article 51A(h) of the Indian Constitution assigns to Indian citizens the fundamental duty to develop scientific temperament, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. However, it is difficult to fight against faith and superstition, especially in a country where a large part of the population is extremely poor, illiterate and superstitious. Laws do not change blind faith. Only reason can.

Despite all the criticism and antagonism, the Mothers halo has remained intact. A tiny figure became one of the most famous personalities of our time. When she died on September 13, 1997, at the age of eighty-seven in Calcutta, she was granted a state funeral. Princes, presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, celebrities, special representatives of heads of state, and three queens attended the funeral. India was represented by its Prime Minister IK Gujaral accompanied by his wife.