Prayers offered in Kolkata in memory of Mother Teresa on her 112th birth anniversary

ANI

Kolkata, August 26

Missionaries of Charity, a congregation in Kolkata, offered prayers in memory of its founder Mother Teresa on her 112th birth anniversary on Friday.

Sisters belonging to the Mother’s House sang hymns and offered prayers in remembrance of the saint near her tomb.

Serving Archbishop Thomas D’Souza said, “This is the celebration of a great person and her every birthday is a celebration for the life of all. It is for the gift of life.”

“Pope Francis said that rivers do not drink their own water, trees do not eat their own fruit, the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature and Mother lived this life. She lived to protect and promote the life of the poor, so this is the celebration to live the life for God and for others,” he added.

Born in a family of ethnic Albanians in Skopje in 1910, Teresa left her home at the age of 18 and later joined the ‘Sisters of Loreto’ located in Ireland’s Rathfarnham.

Teresa, whose actual name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, moved to India in the late 1920s and taught history and geography for 15 years at Calcutta’s St Mary’s High School.

In 1948, Teresa decided to leave the church and adopted a lifestyle in slums to aid the poor and the needy in Kolkata. In 1950, she laid the foundation stone of the Roman Catholic religious congregation which is now popularly known as the Missionaries of Charity.