INDIA - Calcutta: the legacy of Mother Teresa
REPORT -- INDIA, Calcutta: the legacy of Mother Teresa. Calcutta, India's third largest city, is home to 15 million people, 2/3rds of whom live in slums, temporary housing or on the road. It was in this chaotic city that Mother Teresa set up her first clinic, a home for the sick and dying, in 1952. Thirteen years after her death, Calcuttas poorest still come to here in search of food, care and shelter.
Mother House - Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India
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Travel blogs from Mother House:
- ... We used the afternoon to prepare ourselves for Africa before paying a visit to Mother House which is where Mother Teresa carried out her missionary work in Kolkata and her tomb lies ...
- ... Walking into the Mother House - where Mother Teresa is entombed - in the middle of bustling Calcutta one is struck by the simplicity of the place ...
- ... today: - mother house ( mother theresa's mission + tomb) (very moving- steena cried) - muslim quarter - bengali restaurant 1 - bengali restaurant 2 ( ...
- ... Friday 23-November: The next morning I got up a little early and visited the Mother House which is the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity which is best known as the relgious order started by& ...
- ... * Our visit to the Mother House was pretty solemn ...
- ... The irony of leaving Mother House was that they had signs saying not to give money the beggars outside as they were 'professional' and ...
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- Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India
Photos in this video:
- The entrance to Mother House by Mattandlouise from a blog titled Chandney Chowk Street?
- Kids near Mother House by Mattandlouise from a blog titled Chandney Chowk Street?
- Mother House by Mattandlouise from a blog titled Chandney Chowk Street?
New Market, Mother Teresa House, Calcutta India
We went on a great adventure to south Calcutta. This city was once a world city full of people from all over the British Empire. In 1911 the Raj was transferred to New Delhi and Calcutta seems frozen in time from that Era. Some remnants of diversity remain such a jewish bakery in the New Market selling fruit cakes and Portugese cheese. Most of the area is a somewhat dirty shopping area with poorly maintained colonial architecture. We walked through a slum to Mother Teresa's house making the whole experience even more real. The Mother House was amazing and so austere. It was just as she left it and there were nuns who must have known here there. Very low key and a wonderful experience.
Mother House, Calcutta
mother teresa's home in calcutta india
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House of Mother Teresa, Kolkata, Calcutta, West Bengal
Featured in this video is the house of Mother Teresa in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal state of India.
INDIA: CALCUTTA: MOURNERS FLOCK TO HOME OF MOTHER TERESA
English/Nat
Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to helping the world's poor, died on Friday, aged 87.
Her death comes less than a week after the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, also remembered as a woman of great compassion.
Hundreds of mourners have gathered outside Mother Teresa's home in Calcutta, devastated at the news of her passing.
But there were angry and emotional scenes there on Saturday morning after nuns blocked access to the Chapel where Teresa's body lies.
Mother Teresa's body in the chapel of the Missionaries of Charity order.
Her body lies on a bed of ice .
Teresa's hands are clasped and she wears the simple habit of her order - a blue- trimmed white sari and long-sleeved blouse.
Young nuns who filed past touched and kissed her feet in a traditional Indian gesture of respect.
Mother Teresa, who won a Nobel peace prize for her life-saving work around the world, died in Calcutta, the Indian city where her charitable works began.
Her heart gave out on Friday evening, at home in her convent.
For more than 40 years, Mother Teresa and the order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, comforted the destitute and cared for the sick and insane.
The 87-year-old nun was adored by millions as a living saint for caring for the human castoffs the world wanted to forget.
Mourners paid their respects as she lay on her deathbed - many greatly saddened by the news of her passing.
Outside her home at her Missionaries of Charity headquarters in a poor central Calcutta neighborhood, hundreds of people were gathered in the rain as news of the death of Calcutta's most famous personality spread.
Many of them were weeping.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
I am very distressed and sorry to hear of the death of Mother Teresa. She was a very great person. I'm very sorry.
SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop
Those waiting to pay their respects recited prayers as they stood outside.
Later in the morning, nuns shut the gates at the Charity as the crowds grew large, and halted public access to the chapel.
This caused anger and upset in a crowd wanting to pay their last respects to Mother Teresa - nuns and police tried to calm the emotional mourners.
The funeral of Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be held on Wednesday - the 51st anniversary of the day Mother Teresa received what she said was a calling from Jesus.
A site has been chosen in the Missionaries of Charity's headquarters and nuns are consulting the Vatican before finalising arrangements.
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Mother Theresa House Kolkata india
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta HD
The remarkable woman who would be known as Mother Theresa began life named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, she was the youngest child born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, Receiving her First Communion at the age of five, she was confirmed in November 1916. Her father died while she was only eight years old leaving her family in financial straits.
Gonxha's religious formation was assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was very involved as a youth.
Subsequently moved to pursue missionary work, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 at the age of 18 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. She received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. In December of 1929, she departed for her first trip to India, arriving in Calcutta. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for girls.
Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, On May 24, 1937, becoming, as she said, the spouse of Jesus for all eternity. From that time on she was called Mother Teresa.
She continued teaching at St. Mary's and in 1944 became the school's principal. Mother Teresa's twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.
It was on September 10, 1946 during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat,Mother Teresa received her inspiration, her call within a call. On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life.
By means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for victims of love who would radiate His love on souls. Come be My light,'He begged her. I cannot go alone.
Jesus revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.
Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
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Clinton in Calcutta and New Delhi meeting with Indian PM
Calcutta
1. Outside of Missionaries of Charity orphanage
2. Close up of her picture
3. Clinton arrives inside compound to applause and has floral put round neck
4. Children sing
5. Close up of Clinton enjoying the song
6 Mid shot of children.
7. Clinton clapping
8. Inside baby room
9. Nun's hand on baby then wide shot onto Clinton
10. US and India flags
11. Clinton stands in silence at the tomb of Mother Teresa
12. Outside shots
13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bill Clinton, former US President
My wife told me I had to come and I'm so glad I did because we worked hard to help the sisters to establish a house in Washington DC and we've worked hard to make it easier for Americans to adopt children from all around the world and bring them to the United States more quickly. And I hope that by coming here I can express my support and that it would be something I could do to support this mission, I believe in what they are doing and I am very grateful to them for what they are doing.
New Delhi
14. Clinton and PM Vajpayee emerge onto steps of Prime Minister's residence
15. Close up of both and shaking hands
16. Both men look up to Moon
17. Shot of Moon
18. Both men go back inside
STORYLINE:
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton sang a hymn at the tomb of Mother Teresa during the latest stage of his visit to India on Saturday.
He waved to a crowd of one thousand people who were chanting his name as he arrived at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Calcutta.
Sister Nirmala, who succeeded Mother Teresa as the head of the organisation, told reporters that Clinton had placed a bouquet of white gladiolas at her tomb and joined several nuns in singing the hymn, 'Make me a channel of your peace.'
He also cuddled babies and danced with children at the orphanage she founded.
Later, in the Indian capital New Delhi, Mr Clinton held informal talks with the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence.
He was expected to discuss what he's seen in Gujarat which was devestated by an earthquake in January.
His seven day visit is sponsored by the American India Foundation which is raising money for the victims of the disaster.
On Sunday, the former President is due in Rampur, in Uttar Pradesh state, to dedicate a women's polytechnic school in the name of his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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Top 10 Places To Visit In Kolkata ( Calcutta )
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is the capital of India's West Bengal state. Founded as an East India Company trading post, it was India's capital under the British Raj from 1773–1911. Today it’s known for its grand colonial architecture, art galleries and cultural festivals. It’s also home to Mother House, headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, whose tomb is on site.
Area: 185 km²
Elevation: 9.1 m
Weather: 12°C, Wind N at 0 km/h, 85% Humidity
Local time: Thursday, 3:11 AM
Population: 4.497 million (2011)
INDIA: CALCUTTA: THOUSANDS PAY TRIBUTE TO MOTHER TERESA
English/Nat
Thousands of residents of Calcutta joined nuns of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in prayers to pay their tribute to the nun who dedicated her life to serving the poor.
Sister Nirmala, who succeeded Mother Teresa last year as head of the charity, led the sisters in a simple prayer ceremony held at Mother House.
Despite doubts about whether the worldwide charity would survive without its charismatic founder, the Order continues to get funds and has added 20 new centres after Mother Teresa's death.
Prayers to remember Calcutta's saintly nun on her birthday.
At a special Mass held at Mother House, the Missionaries of Charity paid a simple tribute to the founder of their order - by praying and vowing to keep alive her mission of serving the poor.
Mother Teresa died on 5th September last year at the age of 87.
The Nobel laureate nun was buried within the walls of the convent that was her home for half a century.
Her grave, a simple cement tomb with a biblical verse carved on a white marble reads Love one another as I have loved you - a quote from the Gospel of St John.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910, in what is now Macedonia, Mother Teresa came to Calcutta in 1929 to teach as a novitiate of the Loreto order.
The order she founded - the Missionaries of Charity - was recognised in 1950.
And the people of Calcutta have not forgotten the Saint of the gutters.
Markets in the eastern Indian metropolis are having brisk sales of Mother Teresa mementos.
Her work for the poorest of the poor crossed all religious boundaries and won her the Noble Peace Prize in 1979.
Plagued by poor health in her later years, Mother Teresa nevertheless continued her mission to work for the disadvantaged.
Her successor, Sister Nirmala, was elected the new head of the order six months before its founder died.
Faced with the daunting task of following in the footsteps of the charismatic nun, Sister Nirmala has carried the mission forward with a quiet dignity.
Charity and donations continue to pour in belying concerns that the order would falter without its popular public face.
SOUNDBITE ( English) :
It is God's work. If it was only Mother's work, maybe in course of time it could have happened. Since it is God's work, it is the same.
SUPER CAPTION: Sister Nirmala , Superior General, Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity continue to expand their worldwide network.
The four thousand nun order has added 20 new centres since Mother Teresa's death.
Among them is a new home for the disabled, Dayadan or Gift for the poor which is being opened in Calcutta to mark Mother Teresa's birthday
By December this year, the mission will have 614 homes around the world.
For 50 years, these centres have comforted the destitute, sheltered abandoned infants and given succour to the disabled.
Finances of the Order are not made public but Sisters of the mission say the support for the charity has grown.
Volunteers from across the globe continue to share the nuns' work for the sick and the dying.
Mother Teresa's presence is missed, but the mission to comfort the suffering continues.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
I guess for people to come here now and not have met Mother,
maybe they are missing out on something very special. But I think
her memory ... her memory and her work and her love for God and for
the poor - that will continue, it won't change.
SUPER CAPTION: Voxpop, Volunteer
There is one cloud on the horizon however in that controversy still plagues the Missionaries of Charity.
Questions were raised about Mother Teresa' conservative philosophy and sources of funds
After her death, many have questioned the Order's exclusive right to the legacy of her name.
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INDIA: CALCUTTA: MOTHER TERESA RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
English/Nat
Mother Teresa has been released from a hospital in Calcutta after more than two weeks of treatment for lung and heart problems.
Looking pale and frail, the 86-year old Roman Catholic nun returned to her home, the Missionaries of Charities, saying that God would look after her as she had lots of work to do.
An anxious crowd hovered around the doorway, as they have done for two weeks, waiting for a glimpse of the women some regard as a living saint - Mother Teresa.
Looking pale and fragile, she emerged from her ward in a wheelchair Friday after 16 days of treatment for lung and heart problems, saying she wanted to get back to work.
The 86-year-old Roman Catholic nun returned to the headquarters of her worldwide mission for the poor, Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded nearly 50 years ago.
Doctors had hoped to keep her under observation until Saturday to allow her more time to gain strength.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted to the Woodlands Nursing Home August the 20th suffering from recurring symptoms of malaria, and developed an irregular heart beat.
She has been battling illness for years and suffered a heart attack in 1983.
Six years later, a second, stronger heart attack left her with a pacemaker.
Doctors say she no longer has a fever and following her normal diet.
Oxygen and emergency equipment has been installed at the mission to help her recuperate.
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Mother Theresa's Tomb Jd_681's photos around Kolkata (Calcutta), India (mother teresa's tomb)
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at missionaries of charity Kolkata INDIA
インド、コルカタにあるマザーハウスでのクリスマス会終了後、シスターたちが私たちボランティアスタッフに歌ってくれた。すごく忘れられないクリスマスになった
MOTHER TERESA'S HOUSE IN KOLKATA, INDIA.
MOTHER TERESA'S HOUSE IN KOLKATA, INDIA.
INDIA: CALCUTTA: MOTHER TERESA HEALTH UPDATE
Eng/Bengali/Nat
Doctors in the India City of Calcutta say they are astonished by the resilience Mother Teresa is showing as she battles for her life in one of the city's hospitals.
But they say that if she survives the after effects of a mild heart attack the Catholic nun is unlikely to be able to continue her work as before.
News that the Nobel peace Laureate's missionary days may have drawn to a close was greeted with sorrow by those she's spent her life caring for in the slums of Calcutta.
It's not the first time Mother Teresa has fought for her life in a Calcutta hospital bed.
But this time, her doctors are more astonished than ever by the sheer willpower the frail 86-year-old is showing.
The Catholic nun has taken her first steps since life-saving surgery last week, and says she is strong and wants to go home.
For her devotees -- who have prayed constantly for her recovery -- it is nothing short of a miracle.
Nevertheless, Mother Teresa's doctors say she will not be able to work as hard as she did before suffering a heart attack two weeks ago.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
We have to keep an eye on her health, check her day to day life and monitor her heart rate and other parameters from time to time. It (her life) will not be as active as before, considering lot of other problems.
SUPER CAPTION: Dr Tarun Praharaj, senior cardiologist
It's bad news for those living in the city's sprawling slums.
Here 'Mother' as she is known is regarded as a living saint by Christians, Hindus and Muslims alike.
Her devotion to helping Calcutta's poor and ailing over almost five decades has won the people's hearts -- and their trust.
Many thousands have come to rely on her charity.
For them she is simply irreplaceable.
VOXPOPS: (Bengali)
She is like our mother. She is a good person and she has helped us for so long. I don't know what we would do without her.
I pray that she lives and works. We would be in a terrible situation without her. She has been our saviour.
SUPER CAPTION: Slum dwellers
Such fears of desertion, however, are unfounded -- Mother Teresa's charity will go on, carried on by her faithful band of nuns.
Moves are already underway to appoint a successor, meanwhile nuns at her home continue to pray for her recovery around the clock.
They are adamant that although Mother Teresa's working days may be over, she'll spend her retirement in Calcutta among the poor she's striven to help for so long.
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VOICER Mass held for mother Teresa of Calcutta
VOICED BY: VERA FRANKL
SHOTLIST
Sept 5 2003
00 00 Various of mass in prayer hall
00 09 Nun lighting candle at prayer meeting to mark Mother Teresa's death anniversary
00 15 Nuns singing
File , March 16 , 1997
00 21 Various of Mother Teresa receiving a roll of honour from Indian-American society
00 39 Crucifix on wall
00 41 Mother Teresa giving out cards and leaving
Sept 5 2003
00 51 Nuns singing
00 56 Close up of Sister Nirmala , Superior General of Missionaries of Charity
01 00 Various of service
01 10 ENDS
STORYLINE:
Admirers of Mother Teresa sang hymns, prayed and placed flowers Friday at her marbled tomb in eastern India on the sixth anniversary of her death.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. She received the Nobel peace prize in 1979.
A morning mass at Mother House, the headquarters of the order that Mother Teresa founded in Calcutta, was followed by a special banquet for the poor and orphaned.
SUGGESTED VOICE OVER:
00 02
A special morning mass was held to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.
00 08
The service was held at the Calcutta headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity - the order she founded over fifty years ago.
00 15
Nuns from the order, whose saris have distinctive blue borders, sang many of her favourite hymns and prayers.
00 22
Mother Teresa, seen here collecting a roll of honour, dedicated her life to helping the poor.
00 28
She was eighty seven when she died.
00 32
Last December, Pope John Paul II approved a miracle attributed to her, paving the way for her beatification.
00 39
Beatification is a declaration by the pope that someone has reached heaven.
00 44
A second miracle would make her eligible for sainthood, according to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.
00 51
Mother Teresa's work continues around world.
00 55
The superior general of the Missionaries of Charity said the order was moving ahead with its mission to serve those in need.
01 02
It now has about some four-thousand sisters and volunteers working in over a hundred countries.
ENDS
01 10
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the future Mother Teresa, was born on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, to Albanian heritage. Her father, a well-respected local businessman, died when she was eight years old, leaving her mother, a devoutly religious woman, to open an embroidery and cloth business to support the family. After spending her adolescence deeply involved in parish activities, Agnes left home in September 1928, for the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnam (Dublin), Ireland, where she was admitted as a postulant on October 12 and received the name of Teresa, after her patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux.
Agnes was sent by the Loreto order to India and arrived in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. Upon her arrival, she joined the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling. She made her final profession as a Loreto nun on 24 May 1937, and hereafter was called Mother Teresa. While living in Calcutta during the 1930s and '40s, she taught in St. Mary's Bengali Medium School.
On 10 September 1946, on a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she termed the call within a call, which was to give rise to the Missionaries of Charity family of Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, and Co-Workers. The content of this inspiration is revealed in the aim and mission she would give to her new institute: to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the cross for love and souls by labouring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor. On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially erected as a religious institute for the Archdiocese of CalcuttaThroughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Mother Teresa expanded the work of the Missionaries of Charity both within Calcutta and throughout India. On 1 February 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the Decree of Praise to the Congregation, raising it to pontifical right. The first foundation outside India opened in Cocorote, Venezuela, in 1965. The Society expanded to Europe (the Tor Fiscale suburb of Rome) and Africa (Tabora, Tanzania) in 1968.
From the late 1960s until 1980, the Missionaries of Charity expanded both in their reach across the globe and in their number of members. Mother Teresa opened houses in Australia, the Middle East, and North America, and the first novitiate outside Calcutta in London. In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. By that same year there were 158 Missionaries of Charity foundations.
The Missionaries of Charity reached Communist countries in 1979 with a house in Zagreb, Craotia, and in 1980 with a house in East Berlin, and continued to expand through the 1980s and 1990s with houses in almost all Communist nations, including 15 foundations in the former Soviet Union. Despite repeated efforts, however, Mother Teresa was never able to open a foundation in China.
Mother Teresa spoke at the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly in October 1985. On Christmas Eve of that year, Mother Teresa opened Gift of Love in New York, her first house for AIDS patients. In the coming years, this home would be followed by others, in the United States and elsewhere, devoted specifically for those with AIDS.
From the late 1980s through the 1990s, despite increasing health problems, Mother Teresa travelled across the world for the profession of novices, opening of new houses, and service to the poor and disaster-stricken. New communities were founded in South Africa, Albania, Cuba, and war-torn Iraq. By 1997, the Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members, and were established in almost 600 foundations in 123 countries of the world.
After a summer of travelling to Rome, New York, and Washington, in a weak state of health, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta in July 1997. At 9:30 PM, on 5 September, Mother Teresa died at the Motherhouse. Her body was transferred to St Thomas's Church, next to the Loreto convent where she had first arrived nearly 69 years earlier. Hundreds of thousands of people from all classes and all religions, from India and abroad, paid their respects. She received a state funeral on 13 September, her body being taken in procession - on a gun carriage that had also borne the bodies of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru - through the streets of Calcutta. Presidents, prime ministers, queens, and special envoys were present on behalf of countries from all over the world.