Postage stamp, special cover to mark Mother Teresa's sainthood

A special postage stamp and an Indian Post Special Cover will mark Mother Teresa's canonisation as a saint on September 4 at The Vatican, officials said here.

Designed by artist Alok Goyal of Kolkata, the special cover is made of special silk paper with the classic image of Mother Teresa holding a child in her arms.

It has a Rs 5 coin inserted on the cover which was minted in Kolkata in August 2010 on Mother Teresa's birth centenary, and with a skyline of the city which was her sphere of her activity and where she founded the Missioneries of Charity in 1950.

The cover has a postage stamp issued in 2008 depicting Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King on the occasion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a crossed (cancellation) stamp bearing the legend 'Sainthood of Mother Teresa of Kolkaka - September 2016, Sahapur, Kolkatta.'

The reverse of the cover has a registration number as only 1,200 special covers are being printed, and the Register No 91 comes from a collection of Pascal Lopes, a resident of Vasai in Palghar, who holds a Masters in Numismatics & Archaeology.

"On this historic occasion, I shall exhibit this new special cover along with my other entire collection of Mother Teresa coins and stamps from all over the world at St. Peters Church, Bandra on Sunday," Lopes told IANS.

Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha will release a postage stamp dedicated to Mother Teresa who will canonised and proclaimed a Saint by Pope Francis on Sunday.

The stamp release will be held at Divine Child High School in Andheri east to commemorate the event being celebrated globally.

"Earlier, in 1980, the Indian Posts had created history when it released a stamp on Mother Teresa when she was alive - making her (then) the first and only personality to be so uniquely honoured," said Lopes.

On International Women's Day 2007, the Indian Posts had released a Special Postcard featuring great Indian legends like Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, M. S. Subbalakshmi and others.

Another major event will be held in adjoining Palghar's Virar town where a church will be rechristened as 'Saint Mother Teresa Church' on Sunday evening in the presence of over 5,000 people.

Mother Teresa had visited the Vasai Diocese - in which Virar is situated - with a Christian population of 137,000 in April 1986, and this is said to be the only church in India to be named after her.

Similar special masses and celebrations are planned on Sunday in churches of Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Nashik and other cities in Maharashtra which have significant Christian pockets.

--IANS

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