Mother Teresa's 103rd birth anniversary celebrated

The 103rd birth anniversary of Mother Teresa was celebrated with due solemnity by the nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, a global Catholic order established by her to serve the needy and the ailing.

Special prayers were held at the order's global headquarters Mother House, where her three-foot-high cement grave on the ground floor of the central Kolkata building was covered with flowers, as people from all walks of life trooped in.

Expressing her gratitude to all those who had come, the order's Superior General Sister Prema said she would be remembered for her love for the ailing, the poor, the dying. At the West Bengal state secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee garlanded a portrait of the Mother. Sister Prema, nuns and small inmates of several homes of the MoC were present on the occasion.

"Mother was the apostle of peace, brotherhood and service to humanity, particularly the uncared for and the poorest of the poor. Her life and her works epitomize selfless service to the suffering millions. "In today's world, when we see so much of sufferings still around, we must resolve to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of the Mother to wipe out tears and embrace the suffering souls with love and warmth," Banerjee said in a Facebook post.

Mother Teresa - born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje (Macedonia), Aug 26, 1910, to an ethnic Albanian family - made Kolkata her home and workplace for 68 years since 1929. She was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and died here Sept 5, 1997.