Mother-Teresa

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in September 1997, thousands of mourners—rich and poor, Hindus, Muslims, and Chris- Otians alike—lined the streets of Calcutta to watch the city’s most famous resident—Mother Teresa—come home for the last time. As a mark of the esteem in which it held the tiny nun, the Indian government had given Mother Teresa its highest honor: a state funeral. All over the nation, f lags flew at half-mast, and in Calcutta a three-hour-long Mass was held in the city’s gigantic Netaji Indoor Stadium. This service, for the woman popularly known as the Saint of the Gutters, was attended by presidents, prime ministers, queens, and about 15,000 other guests from around the world.