Mother's tenth death anniversary observed with due solemnity

Kolkata, Sep 5 (UNI) Catholic masses, candle light processions and prayers marked the tenth death anniversary of Mother Teresa as a sea of humanity, beholden to the 'Saint of the gutters', mingled in an ocean of tears to pay homage to her at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity here today.

Kolkata's Archbishop Lucas Sirkar led an early morning mass, attended by nuns and volunteers at the Mother House, while prayers with candlelight processions were held in schools and clinics she had opened in the slums decades ago.

Sister Nirmala, the Mother's successor and Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, was present on the occasion.

'' In the heart of people Mother is always a saint. I am feeling deep joy remembering the Mother's presence among us, '' she said while placing candles on her tomb in a hall of the Mother's house even as a motely crowd assembled outside the gate shouting that she must not be made a God..

'' The Mother should not be portrayed as a saint. She is a human being, who worked for the mankind, '' shouted the protesters claiming to be members of the Rationalist Socieity.

All India Minority Forum organised an interfaith prayer at the Mother House, the headquarters of the order a young nun had set up for service to the poorest of the poor in the 'city of joy', which now has more than 4,800 sisters and 750 homes across the world.

Dressed in traditional white sari with blue border, the nuns along with the rich and poor prayed when the door of the Mother's house was thrown open in the morning.

The Mother, who came to Kolkata in 1929, received Nobel Peace prize in 1979 for her service to the mankind.

She was also beatified by the Vatican in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, who gave her the tile ''Blessed Teresa of Calcutta'' after the report of her miraculous feat of curing a woman of her tumour that boosted the call of the Catholics worldwide to declare her a saint.

UNI