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Mother Teresa: The Authorized Biography

Name: Mother Teresa: The Authorized Biography
Author: Navin Chawla
ISBN: 9781852309114

by Navin Chawla

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Overview

Mother Teresa's name immediately conjures up a vision of a small, frail woman in a white sari, offering love and compassion to the poorest of the poor who live in the slums of Calcutta, in cardboard boxes in London, in the ghettos of New York, and in the shadow of the Vatican itself. In recognition of her unique work, the world has lavished on her its highest honors and awards, from the Nobel Peace Prize to the Order of Merit presented by Queen Elizabeth. These she has accepted only in the name of the poor, whom she and her Missionaries of Charity so devotedly serve - 'I am but a pencil in the hands of the Lord, it is his work', she has repeatedly said. Starting out with no resources or preconceived ideas, armed only with her faith, Mother Teresa has created an enormously successful religious order that has spread to over a hundred countries, setting up institutions for the destitute, the handicapped, orphans, the leprosy-affected and the dying. Yet her main work remains in the midst of the slums and the dirt of the streets.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The first American publication of the authorized biography of Mother Teresa (published in Britain in 1992), this book was written during a five-year period. The author, an Indian civil servant, has collected many letters and rare photographs, which provide personal charm as she describes the life of this diminutive Albanian nun who has lived in Calcutta since 1928. To read this book is to be suddenly brought up short by Mother Teresa's transformative vision of the world. Mother Teresa sees the dying as the very body of the crucified Christ, and she views leprosy patients as recipients of a gift of God designed to bring them closer to Him. Page by page, the drumbeat of this astonishing way of thinking makes it instantly clear how the founder of the Sisters of Mercy has transformed what should be the most appalling circumstances of sickness, poverty and death into an opportunity to serve the broken body of the living Christ. (Sept.)