Enduring legacy

NOW FAITH is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, so says the book of Hebrews. And who in recent times better exemplified and drove this message than Mother Teresa?

Nineteen years after her death, she was on Sunday declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Francis – 66 years after she founded the Missionaries of Charity religious order. Mother Teresa, known as the “saint of the gutters” during her life, becomes the latest in the church’s communion of saints, those past Christians whom the RCC holds up as models of behaviour and guides for a spiritual life.

Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents, Mother Teresa grew up in the then Macedonian capital Skopje, which used to be part of the Ottoman Empire. When she was 19, she joined the Irish order of Loreto and later was sent to India, where she first taught and then tended to orphans and the sick. She founded the Missionaries of Charity religious order in 1950. The mission started with 12 nuns and has expanded across the globe. Mother Theresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Inevitably, despite being widely revered as one of the holiest people of the 20th century, Mother Teresa’s legacy has been called into question by several critics. Much of the criticism revolves around the way she promoted views of the Catholic Church that many would today see as dogmatic.

In a 2003 essay, the late Anglo-American author Christopher Hitchens wrote: “Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.”

Other sceptics said her suitably charismatic appearance represented the greatest PR victory of the church in the past 100 years.

But there’s no denying Mother Teresa’s genuine concern for the underdog; her piety, courage and kindness touched not only the downtrodden of Calcutta, but millions more worldwide.

Saint Teresa’s legacy will endure.