London: Mother Teresa has been posthumously conferred with the UK’s prestigious Founders Award this year which is given in recognition for the exemplary achievements of people within the global Asian community.
Teresa’s only living relative, her 72-year old niece, Agi Bojazhiu flew especially from Italy to receive the award yesterday.
Teresa, who will be made a saint on September 4, founded the Missionaries of Charity and spent 45 years serving the poor, the sick, the orphaned, and the dying on the streets of Kolkata.
She died at the age of 87 in Kolkata in 1997.
The announcement was received at the Mother House with immense joy. “We have received an official confirmation from Vatican that Pope Franscis has approved Mother’s sainthood and set September 4 as the date for her canonisation. We are very excited and happy,” Missionaries of Charity Spokesperson Sunita Kumar said. A sister associated with Missionaries of Charity said, “We arranged a special afternoon prayer to celebrate the occasion. We were expecting this announcement ever since the second miracle was recognised by the pope in December.” In keeping with the tradition of the organisation, the afternoon prayer meeting was a sombre and quiet affair. “The only joy we get it is through prayers. That’s our celebration,” she said. According to the norms, the Catholic Church requires one “medical” miracle before a deceased Catholic can be declared “blessed,” and another such miracle, occurring after that declaration, before he or she can be canonized as a saint. Teresa, who will now be a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church, was beatified by then pope John Paul II in a fast-tracked process in 2003 the first step towards sainthood\. In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised the first miracle she was said to have carried out after her death, namely the 1998 healing of a tribal woman Monika Besra in South Dinajpore district of West Bengal, who was suffering from an abdominal tumour. Besra had said that after the application of a locket with Mother Teresa’s picture, she saw a beam of light emanating from it which, she claimed, cured her tumour.