Kolkata: Prayers offered in memory of Mother Teresa on her birth anniversary

Peace prayers were offered at the Missionaries of Charity here on Monday to pay tribute to Mother Teresa on her 109th birth anniversary.

Scores of nuns gathered to offer prayer to the Nobel Prize winner by lighting candles at the flower-adorned grave.

"Mother was not concerned about the success, fame or power; she only belonged to Jesus. She served the poorest of the poor across the world and became the defender of the right to life for the unborn and challenged children, who were perceived as the burden to the society," a nun said in her eulogy.

Born in a family of ethnic Albanians in Skopje in 1910, Teresa left her home at the age of 18 and later joined the 'Sisters of Loreto' located in Irelands's Rathfarnham.

Mother Teresa, whose actual name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, moved to India in the late 1920s and taught history and geography for 15 long years at Calcutta's St Mary's High School.

In 1948, Teresa decided to leave the church and adopted a lifestyle in slums to aid the poor and the needy in Kolkata.

In 1950, she laid the foundation stone of the Roman Catholic religious congregation which is now popularly known as the Missionaries of Charity.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, but she refused to accept it and urged the jury to contribute the prize money of USD 192,000 for helping the poor people of India.

In September 2017, Mother Teresa was declared Patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Calcutta by the Vatican Pope for her selfless service towards helping the underprivileged and poor in Kolkata.