Paldane parish celebrates birth centenary of Mother Theresa

Paldane parish celebrates birth centenary of Mother Theresa

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, August 26: The parish of Paldane, which has the only church in the diocese dedicated to Mother Teresa, celebrated her birth centenary on Aug 25, Wednesday. The holy mass was offered by Fr. G. W. Vas, the parish priest of Paldane.

 

 

 

 

Principal of Rosario Pre University College Fr. Alwyn Serrao said in his homily that Mother Theresa was an ambassador of peace and urged people to emulate her qualities and curb violence in the modern world.

Adoration of the Holy Sacrament was held for one hour for world peace.  A large number of Christians from Paldane participated in the holy mass.

Mother Teresa Birth Centenary

It was exactly hundred years ago that one of the great servants of humanity, Blessed Mother Teresa was born in a foreign land and later joining a religious order came to India and eventually became an Indian citizen. Witnessing the miserable condition of the poor, sick, destitute  and neglected and lonely, Mother Teresa found her second calling in helping and caring for  these unfortunate people. Mother Teresa, by her unconditional service to the destitute and dying earned the epithet as the ‘Saint of the Gutters’ and following her death in September 1997, was beatified by Pope John Paul II as ‘Blessed Mother Teresa’ in 2003. On the occasion of the centenary of her birth, it would be appropriate to review briefly her life and work that has inspired a large number of people all over the world.

Mother Teresa was born to Nikollë and Drana Bojaxhiu of Albanian ethnicity on 26 August 1910  in Skopje in Serbia as their youngest of three children and was named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father, who was involved in Albanian politics died in 1919 when his daughter Agnes was just eight years old. After her father’s death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic.

Arriving in India in 1929, Agnes began her novitiate in Darjeeling and took her first religious vows as a nun on 24 May 1931. At that time she chose the name ‘Teresa’ after Theresa of Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. Later, she took her final vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto Convent School in eastern Kolkata.

From 1931 to 1948, Mother Teresa taught geography and catechism in St. Mary’s High School in Kolkata. Although Mother Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Kolkata. The Bengal Famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu-Muslim riots in August 1946, plunged the city into despair and horror. During this period Mother Teresa became thoroughly acquainted with the sufferings of the poor and the marginalized section of the people of Kolkata.

When Mother Teresa moved out of the secured precinct of the convent to serve the poor, she had no funds. However, she depended fully on Divine Providence. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Kolkata and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border, which later became the habit of the Missionaries of Charity, adopted Indian citizenship, and ventured out into the slums of Kolkata.

Initially Mother Teresa opened a school for street children and  soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.  However, she had to face lot many difficulties and even started doubting whether she would be able to continue her mission. Mother Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies.


In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in a place made available by the Municipal authorities of Kolkata. With the help of officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the ‘Kalighat Home for the Dying’, a free hospice for the poor. Later, she renamed it as ‘Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart’ (Nirmal Hriday).

Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from leprosy, and called the hospice ‘Shanti Nagar’ (City of Peace). The Missionaries of Charity, which began as a small Order with twelve members in Kolkata in 1950, soon began to attract both volunteers and charitable donations, and by the 1960s under the direction of Mother Teresa, the order opened hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India. Mother Teresa then expanded the order throughout the globe. Its first house outside India was opened in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968. During the 1970s, the Missionaries of Charity opened houses and centers in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.  Gradually, the Missionaries of Charity grew in number and by 2007 their congregation had approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns’ worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.

By the 1970s, Mother Teresa came to be known internationally as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless due in part to a documentary and book titled ‘Something Beautiful for God’ by Malcolm Muggeridge.

In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining fast. On 13 March 1997, Mother Teresa stepped down from the head of the Missionaries of Charity and was succeeded by Sister Nirmala. Mother Teresa after a long period of service to the poor and marginalized died on 5 September 1997.

Following Mother Teresa’s death in September 1997, Vatican began the process of her beatification, a step towards canonization.  This process required the documentation of the holiness and that of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. As a procedure towards the beatification of Mother Teresa two tribunals were constituted-one on the holiness of the Mother and the other on a miracle attributed to her. Both these tribunals were headed by a native of Moodubelle, Rt. Rev. Salvadore Lobo, Bishop of Baruipur in West Bengal.  In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, after the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa’s picture. Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Mother Teresa was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 October 2003 with the title ‘Blessed Teresa of Kolkata’. A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.