MOTHER TERESA HONOURED
September 7th, 2010 by | Posted in News Comments Off on MOTHER TERESA HONOUREDA commemorative stamp was issued by USPS in honour of Mother Teressa on her 13th death anniversary. Mother Teresa, the Macedonia-born ethnic Albanian nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950 and was also honored with the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.
Teresa was born on 26 August 1910 as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and worked extensively for the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying. She had a special place for leprosy patients. After her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Agnes left her home in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loretto in Ireland. Six weeks later, she was sent to India as a teacher for the Sisters’ school in Calcutta. While teaching in Calcutta, Mother Teresa began her work with the poor and sick, a work that would become her life’s calling.
She worked tirelessly for 50 years in the service of the poor and the down-trodden.
She was loved by all, but her critics accused her of accepting dirty money.
Some raised concerns about the way she ran the Missionaries of Charity. Still others accused her of working to convert people or of limiting herself to keeping people alive rather than tackling poverty itself.
But on her Centenary celebrations United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp to honour her and recognised her humanitarian work.
The 44-cent stamp showing a portrait of the Roman Catholic nun has been released at a ceremony Sunday, the 5th September 2010, at Washington’s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The stamp features a portrait of Mother Teresa painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs, CO.
When Mother Teresa accepted the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize — one of her numerous honors and distinctions — she did so “in the name of the poor, the hungry, the sick and the lonely,” and convinced the organizers to donate to the needy the money normally used to fund the awards banquet.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress awarded Mother Teresa honorary U.S. citizenship.
President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, the same year she began work on behalf of AIDS sufferers in the U.S. and other countries.
In 1997, Congress awarded Mother Teresa the Congressional Gold Medal for her “outstanding and enduring contributions through humanitarian and charitable activities.”
Mother Teresa died in Kolkata, India, on Sept. 5, 1997, and is buried there. She was a citizen of India since 1948.
The Indian Government, Department of Posts, could have done well by giving her this honour by issuing a postage stamp, but the Postal department has undoubtedly slept over this issue.
Tags: Missionaries of Charity Calcutta, Mother Teressa Commemorative Stamp, Postage Stamp, US Postal Service