Kolkata: Nuns, priests and slum-dwellers held a solemn mass in Kolkata on Thursday on the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, known as the "Saint of the Gutters" for her life's work with the city's sick and dying.
The mass, presided over by Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, was celebrated at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity - the order of nuns that Mother Teresa founded in the eastern Indian city 60 years ago.
A message from Pope Benedict XVI was read out at the two-hour service, which drew around 1,000 people, including scores of residents from the city's slums which have always been the focus of the order's work.
The chapel, decorated with flowers and candles, was so packed that hundreds had to stand outside.
"We are here to pay respect to a great soul who spent her life caring for the poor and destitute," said schoolteacher Sumit Kothari.
Afterwards, the nuns who succeeded Mother Teresa, Sister Nirmala and the current head of the order, Sister Prema, released some white doves as a symbol of peace and compassion.
"I am confident that this year will be, for the church and the world, an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work of you, her spiritual children," the pope's message read.
Mother Teresa, a Nobel peace prize winner and now Roman Catholic saint-in-waiting, was born on August 26, 1910 to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje in Macedonia.
As Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she arrived in India in 1929 and two years later took her first religious vows as a nun, adopting the name under which she would achieve worldwide recognition.
In addition to Kolkata, Thursday's anniversary was to be marked in the three neighbouring Balkan states of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo - all of which lay claim to a slice of the Mother Teresa legend.
Mother Teresa began her missionary work with the poor in Kolkata in 1948 and the teeming east Indian metropolis remained her base until her death in September 1997.
Her grave in the order's headquarters has since become a pilgrimage site.
Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003, after being fast-tracked by the Vatican, but her elevation to sainthood is still awaiting proof of a medical miracle.
"We're all hoping for her early sainthood," said Sunil Lucas, West Bengal president of the Catholics International Media Organisation. "But we understand that this takes time."
"We don't have it yet," Sister Prema, who took charge of the order last year, told AFP on Thursday. "Miracles depend on God, not on people. We are waiting."
