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S P E C I A L : Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy

Mother Teresa's legacy knows no boundaries

'She is the real mother of all of us'

September 5, 1997
Web posted at: 10:12 p.m. EDT (0212 GMT)

In this story:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says, "Come, enter the kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was sick and you visited me."

It seems a fitting tribute, somehow, to Mother Teresa, a tiny but indomitable woman whose life was spent doing just that, whether it was in Calcutta, San Francisco or the South Bronx.

vxtreme Mother Theresa's legacy September 5, 1997

"That was maybe the greatest gift that she taught us," said the Most Rev. Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Newark. "If we could all let ourselves be used by the Lord and accomplish what he wants us to do, I think that's the message, that's the secret."

The 87-year-old Roman Catholic nun died Friday in the Calcutta headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity order that she had founded nearly half a century ago.

Thousands of midnight mourners converged from all corners of the sprawling, humid city to mourn the woman they simply called "Mother."

Ratna Dafadar, a 45-year-old housewife, broke down in tears. "I knew her from my childhood. She is the real mother of all of us."

'Our mother passes away to Jesus'

Blackboard announcing Mother Teresa's death

At first police tried to chase away the mourners, but finally they relented and let the people file in to see Mother Teresa's body, lying on ice blocks in the chapel where she had prayed daily.

"Our Mother passes away to Jesus" was written in large letters on a board outside the building.

"In Philadelphia, Mother Teresa established two houses for the poor and for the victims of AIDS," says Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia. "That is a sign of Mother Teresa's concern for the marginalized and the poor."

In California 10 years ago, she visited death row inmates at San Quentin Prison, and two years later in San Francisco set up a small AIDS hospice in an old Victorian house. On Friday, the nuns who run the hospice prayed for the soul of the woman known as "the saint of the gutters."

"She was totally worldly, yet totally spiritual at the same time," said former California governor Jerry Brown.

They prayed for her in Chicago, as well, yet another of the hundreds of cities around the world where Mother Teresa established another Missionaries of Charity hospice.

And they prayed for her in the South Bronx, a part of New York often held up as an example of all that is wrong with urban America.

'Charity is love'

Mother Teresa set up three missions in the New York area, including one in the South Bronx that also has a Missions of Charity convent.

Mother Teresa often stayed in the convent during her visits to New York, and three months ago met there with the late Princess Diana for 40 minutes.

Carmen Martinez Velella stood outside the convent Friday, clutching a picture of herself with Mother Teresa taken last year.

"We were so happy to meet her," says the 73-year-old Velella. "When she talked to me, she said, 'Charity is love.'"

Correspondent Mary Ann McGann and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Special section -- Mother Teresa:  Angel of Mercy

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