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HT THIS DAY: Sept 6, 1997— Mother Teresa passes away after cardiac arrest
The Mother breathed her last at 9.30 pm at her home at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity. The 87-vear-old Nobel laureate died of a cardiac arrest.
Calcutta Mother Teresa, apostle of love and peace, who lived each moment of her life to wipe away the tears of the deprived and the destitute, is no more.
The Mother breathed her last at 9.30 p.m. today at her home at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity. The 87-vear-old Nobel laureate died of a cardiac arrest.
As soon as her death was announced, the entire nation plunged into mourning. People came out in large numbers and gathered at the Missionaries of Charity in central Calcutta to mourn the “living saints” death.
The Mother complained of chest pain, and several doctors were called but she breathed her last a few minutes later, the announcement said.
Baptised in 1929, the Albanian born nun chose to make Calcutta her home where she set up the Missionaries of Charity in 1949 to serve the ailing members of the humanity.
The Mother, who was twice hospitalised last year, had a bypass surgery and was also on a permanent pace maker.
She was due to attend an all faith prayer meeting in the city to pay respects to Princess Diana.
The Missionary Order which plunged into grief was praying for the peace of Mother’s soul at a mass.
The Mother, who stepped down as the head of the Order on March 13 this year after repeated health problems, paved the way for election of Sister Nirmala as the new head of the organisation.
Her Order founded in 1947 has 4,000 nuns running orphanages, homes of the poor and other charity centres worldwide.
The Mother stepped out of the confines of a convent 50 years ago to “serve God among the poorest of the poor” and had been a guardian angel for the sick and dying the world over since then.
Though bent with age and a host of ailments, her spirit and faith remained unbroken as she brought succour to the sick and dying of Kalighat’ , the gas victim of Bhopal, the flood striken in Bangladesh, the starving in Ethiopia and the earthquake victims of Armenia.
After being named for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, the “living saint” had said “I accept in the name of the poor because I believe that by giving me this prize, they are recognising the presence of the poor in the world.”
In 1990, when Mother Teresa was hospitalised, the world had prayed for her. Fitted with a pace maker, she resumed her work.
Mother Teresa had rarely talked about herself. Her visitors to the Missionaires of Charity headquarters in Calcutta which included Presidents and Prime Ministers, millionaires, kings and kingmakers were baffled by her reticence. Her humility was illustrated in a published interview, asked if she had taken her name after St Teresa of Avila who also left her convent and founded an order she laughed, “Oh no, I have not called myself after the big Teresa but the little one - teresa of Lisieux.”
On the very first day of the home which opened in 1952, Mother Teresa literally picked up a woman half eaten by and ants and carried her to the dharamshala.
As she began to cleanse her, the woman’s skin came off her flesh to the gentlest of touches. The warmth of human care and affection could not save her.
Slightly built and diminutive, Mother Teresa eschewed public notice, working in the obscurity of the slums. But her humble approach could not hide the greatness of her work.
She herself had no personal property or savings. But her real wealth was Himalayan in size the millions of destitutes orphaned and abandoned sufferers around the world.
In all her work both in India and abroad, she adopted the Indian tradition in service.
She seemed to have assiduously cultivated the Indian outlook and through her it was for the first time that the Catholic order adopted an Indian dress.
