India flatly rejected Tuesday a demand by the Albanian government for the return of the remains of Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, buried in the eastern city of Kolkata. "Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and she is resting in her own country, her own land," Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
The ethnic Albanian nun, who was known as the "Saint of the Gutters" for her work among the poor of Kolkata, was given Indian citizenship in 1951. "The question (of her remains being taken back to Albania) does not arise at all," Prakash said. Following her death on September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa was buried at the Kolkata headquarters of her Missionaries of Charity order, which has now become something of a pilgrimage site.
In reported comments at the weekend, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said his government would intensify efforts to reclaim her remains before the 100th anniversary of her birth in August next year. Missionaries of Charity spokesperson Sister Christie said the order had not been informed of any official attempt by the Albanian government to have the remains moved.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910, Mother Teresa arrived in India as a novitiate in 1929 and dedicated herself to working among the sick and destitute. She took the name of Teresa on taking her vows as a nun in 1931 and in 1950 established the order which runs homes for abandoned children, the elderly, and those suffering from leprosy and AIDS.
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