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Notable Deaths - September 5

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Here are the notable deaths on September 5 throughout the years:

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) - Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, she was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950.  For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity’s expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.  By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge.  She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work.  Her Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.  Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.  Coverage of Mother Teresa around the world has been mainly positive, and she has been praised by many individuals, governments and organisations; however, in addition to this positive reaction, she has faced a diverse range of criticism.  These include objections by various non-Christians, including the atheists Christopher Hitchens and Aroup Chatterjee and the Hindu Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work; this included alleged baptisms of the dying, a strong pro-life stance on abortion, and a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty.  Several medical journals also criticized the standard of medical care in her hospices, and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent.  She suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II.  After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker.  In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems.  She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay.  Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.  In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone.  In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle.  She had heart surgery, but it was clear that her health was declining.  On March 13, 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5.  The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D’Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalized with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.  At the time of her death, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries.  These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

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