North Macedonia marks 116th birthday of Mother Teresa
A central ceremony is scheduled at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje; Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti is expected to attend.
North Macedonia marks the 116th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa with a series of events in Skopje, centred on a ceremony at the Museum of Contemporary Art where Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, is expected to attend.
A government delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for European Affairs Bekim Sali will lay flowers at the memorial plaque on the house where she was born, located near today’s Macedonia Square in the city centre.
Commemorations and a ten‑year anniversary programme
The programme opened today at Porta Macedonia and continues under the title "Days of Saint Mother Teresa" until 5 September, marking the tenth anniversary of her canonization. Organizers say the festival will include spiritual, cultural and humanitarian activities such as concerts, a poetry evening, exhibitions and visits to vulnerable families.
The central part of the programme will close with a Holy Liturgy on 5 September at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with participation from domestic and visiting bishops.
Mother Teresa, born Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu in Skopje on 26 August 1910 as the third child of the Roman Catholic Bojaxhiu family, was baptized one day after her birth, on 27 August, in the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Skopje. At the age of 18 she left Macedonia, first travelling to Ireland and then to Calcutta, India, where she dedicated her life to serving the poorest and most vulnerable.
Her work against poverty, hunger, disease and suffering made her one of the most respected humanitarians of the 20th century. She founded the Catholic congregation Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta; it now numbers thousands of sisters working in hundreds of missions worldwide, operating schools, soup kitchens, shelters and care institutions. Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 in Calcutta at the age of 87.
Two years after her death Pope John Paul II opened the diocesan phase of the process that led to her beatification; she was declared Blessed in 2003. On 17 December 2015 Pope Francis approved the second miracle needed for canonization, and Mother Teresa was proclaimed a saint on 4 September 2016 at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. In 1980 she was declared an honorary citizen of Skopje.
Photo: Printskrin
