Mother Teresa is buried

Mother Teresa, the nun who captured the world's attention and accolades with her selfless devotion to the poor, was buried on 13 September 1997 in Culcutta, India. The 87-year-old nun died on 5 September. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Working alone at first but later joined by others, Mother Teresa expanded her efforts to embrace abandoned infants and children, AIDS sufferers, the elderly, the ill and the destitute. Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her charity work and she received the first state funeral accorded to a private citizen of India since the death of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948. The three hour state funeral, which was characterised by multi-lingual and multi-religious rites, was held in Calcutta's Netaji Indoor Stadium. Dignitaries from more than 50 nations attended the Roman Catholic funeral mass, presided over by Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, the personal representative of Pope John Paul II. "Crossing the frontiers of religious and ethnic differences, she has taught the world this lesson: It is more blessed to give than to receive," Sodano said in his homily. Following the public funeral in Calcutta stadium, Mother Teresa's body was finally buried in a private ceremony at Mother House, the headquarters of her charity. Mother Teresa visited South Africa in 1988. Further reading: Feature: The Nobel Prize and South African Winners of the award. Feature: Mohandas K. Gandhi Outside link: Mother Theresa, a biography. Website: nobelprize.org