Seventh Anniversary of Mother Teresa’s Death dedicated to Russia’s Children

The seventh anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death was marked with a special day of prayer for peace and for the children that died in the Russian school hostage catastrophe.

Sister Christie, who is the spokeswoman of the Missionaries Charity which is the order founded by Mother Teresa said, “Nuns of Missionaries of Charity held a special mass on Mothers seventh death anniversary praying peace for the children who died in a... terrorist siege in Russia."

The crisis in the Russian town of Beslan, North Ossetia, which lasted for three days, left more than 330 people dead; a large number of which were children.

"Doors of the Mother House remained open all the day to observe Mothers death anniversary as a day of peace," added Sister Christie.

Mother Teresa, who was born in Macedonia in 1910, founded the Missionaries of Charity in1949 and went on to receive the Nobel Peace prize in 1979 for her endless workings and passionate efforts with the poor. She died in 1997.

The Archbishop of Calcutta Luca Sircar stated that the special mass was offered in memory of Mother Teresa, and also for the Russian children across all the churches within the city. Hoards of people gathered in Mother House from a variety of communities, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, from morning until evening to light candles and to pray.

Church bells tolled as the Sunday mass was offered in memory of Mother Teresa, who was allowed a requiem by the Vatican.

The requiem across churches in West Bengal was a very special exception that the Vatican made because Sunday is the Lord's day and no other feast is usually allowed on that day.

"But in case of Mother Teresa an exception was made, waiving the traditional ban on personal mass on Sundays," said a sister of Missionaries of Charity, the Kolkata-headquartered order founded by Mother Teresa.

Drawing on Mother Teresa's inspiration, the order's volunteers and nuns work among the city's poor, pulling out dying men from piles of garbage, nursing orphans quietly left at the door of orphanages or dressing the wounds of leprosy patients.

Elsewhere in the world, Missionaries of Charity volunteers carry on their good work - tending to crippled children in war-ravaged Iraq or opening gruel kitchens for starving people in Africa.

With around 720 charitable centres in 132 countries that work for the poor, ailing and the distressed, the religious order is considered to be the fastest growing in the Catholic Church.