CALCUTTA — The Nirmal Hriday home is a place where more than 36,000 destitute have died in peace here in the last 50 years. Were it not for the Missionaries of Charity nuns and foreign volunteers who run the home, they might die alone on the streets of Calcutta.

It was the first charity center Blessed Teresa of Calcutta set up in 1952 and is known as her “first love.”

Dr. Alessandro Guglielmini could have gone to Rome for the beatification of Mother Teresa. He came here instead. In fact, he comes to India once a year as a volunteer.

Speaking to the Register while feeding a dying destitute man at Nirmal Hriday, a name which means Clean Heart, the doctor from Milan, Italy, said Oct. 19, “I did not want to be in Rome. Mother lives here.

“I find God in these people,” he said.

The hymn 'Rejoice in the Lord Always” reverberated from Nirmal Hriday as the Church worldwide celebrated Mother Teresa's beatification.

And the mood among the people of this city of 3.3 million was summarized by a headline in The Sunday Times of India: “Blessed Kolkatta (Calcutta) of Mother Teresa.”

“When Pope John Paul II today declares Mother Teresa ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’, it will be the city that will be actually blessed,” said the Times report.

At Nirmal Hriday, nuns and volunteers began work at dawn to finish the routine medical dressing of those with festering wounds in time for a 9 a.m. Mass to celebrate the beatification.

True to the simplicity which is the hallmark of the charity work started by Mother Teresa, the altar was decorated with a white cotton sheet with a sketch of Mother Teresa with a dying man in her hands. Evoking the Gospel, a caption read, “You did it to me.”

After Mass, a couple of the younger residents who could stand on their feet joined the volunteers and street children there in dancing as the local youthful choir members sang hymns of thanksgiving. But the nuns slipped out to attend to the more needy residents, some of whom had soiled their beds in the meantime.

Soon, the choir left and the volunteers too were back to their routine — changing bed linen and feeding the “poorest of the poor” who are near death.

Mother's Tomb

Meanwhile, the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity, where the newly beatified lived and is buried, had been a beehive of activity since the previous evening with the nuns decorating Mother Teresa's white marbled tomb with jasmine flowers.

The Albanian nun, who came to India in 1929 as a Loretto Sister and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, has rested here since her death in 1997.

Surprising the nuns, over 100 TV crewmen and photographers took up positions in the private chapel above her tomb before dawn to report the 6 a.m. Sunday Mass attended by the nuns, foreign volunteers and local Catholics.

After Mass, an endless stream of visitors from all walks of life — including Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs — started lining up to touch and pray at the tomb of the diminutive nun who was affectionately called by the people 'ma,’ which, as in many languages, means “mother” in the local Bengali tongue.

“She was a mother to all, and everyone loves her. That is why I am here,” said the Rev. Brojen Malakar, a bishop of the Anglican Church of North India.

For Sharbani Paul, a Hindu, the reasons to visit the tomb on the day were born out of respect: “She looked upon every individual with equality, and I wanted to pay respect to Mother on her special day.”

Sukhnandan Singh, a follower of Sikhism, also cited Blessed Teresa's quality of mother to all people, adding, “This is a day for all of us to rejoice.”

The spartan Missionaries of Charity homes had a pleasant surprise with TV sets temporarily installed by donors to enable the nuns and residents to view the telecast of the ceremony at the Vatican.

When the solemn ceremony got underway in Rome, it was 1:30 p.m. in India. Street children and others gathered at the motherhouse to pay tribute to the woman once called “saint of the gutters.”

More than 500 children joined dozens of street children in a mile-long march from the motherhouse to Sishu Bhavan, which cares for 300 orphan children. Many held placards hailing Mother Teresa as “enduring love.”

“Mother was one who cared for the orphans. So, it is time for these [orphans] to pay her tribute while she is being beatified,” said Herod Mullick, general secretary of Bangiya Christian Parisebha — the ecumenical Bengal Christian Council.

The council also organized over two dozen street marches across West Bengal state over the weekend leading a “people's celebration” of the beatification with the participation of Christians, Hindus and Muslims.

After the live telecasts, the focus of attention was the Sishu Bhavan where a statue of Mother Teresa holding a child in her arms was unveiled while orphans under six staged dances to honor the nun.

Later in the evening, the alumni of the prestigious Don Bosco School in Calcutta organized a concert in homage to Blessed Teresa, led by two popular singers. A large photo of the blue-and-white-clad nun graced the stage, and marigolds decorated the walls. Over 100 Missionaries of Charity nuns sat in the audience.

The Catholic hierarchy of India was at the Vatican Oct. 19, so the official Catholic celebrations of the beatification are scheduled for the first week of November on the return of the Catholic leaders.

The Archdiocese of Calcutta has planned several programs, including a solemn Mass of thanksgiving, a film festival on Mother Teresa, an exhibition on her life, an interfaith meeting, and a public meeting to pay tribute to the Nobel Laureate nun who adopted Calcutta as her home caring for the poorest of the poor.

Anto Akkara is based in New Delhi.