WEBVTT - S1: Ep 3 - Mother 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:20.960 Mother Teresa was always traveling, flying here, flying there. I 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:22.840 tend to think of her as living as part in life, 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.000 but of course she took planes like anyone else. Mary 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.040 Johnson remembers this one time in particular, the two of 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.240 them flew from Rome to Sweden. Mary was Mother's traveling 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:33.880 companion and assistant for the trip. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.480 We were going there for an ecumenical conference where mother 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:39.479 was going to be honored and was going to give 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:39.880 a talk. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.640 They boarded the plane in their blue and white sares. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.800 Mary also packed two heavy boxes of miraculous metals, these 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.680 small religious tokens that Mother Teresa would kiss and hand 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.279 out to people. Mary and Mother Teresa settled into their 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.520 seats in first class. They booked economy, but Mary says 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.320 airlines always upgraded their tickets. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.560 They're trying to avoid all that commotion that would happen 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.560 if people knew Mother Teresa was on the plane. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.720 Mary says, Mother Teresa pulled on the sleeve of one 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.320 of the flight attendants and said. 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.040 All that extra food you know that people aren't eating, 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.840 that you're gonna have to throw away anyway, Could you 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.120 give it to me and I will use it for 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:17.640 the poor. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.840 The flight attendant looked hesitant, awkward. She explained they had 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:23.760 to throw the food waste away. It was against the 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:24.560 rules to keep it. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.440 And she said, oh no, just tell them Mother Teresa 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.120 needs it for the poor. They won't make any fuss 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:35.240 for you. And anyway, long story short, Eventually she went 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.479 around with a big black trash bag, collecting things from people, 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:40.800 and of course that's how people came to know that 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.280 Mother Teresa was on the plane. And then they all 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.200 started to come, one by one and standing next and 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.080 Mother would sign things for them and kiss the metal 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.800 and give it to them and pray with them and 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.520 all the rest of it. And when we finally landed 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.920 in Stockholm and we got out of the plane and 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.720 there was that the Catholic bishop and the Lutheran big 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.960 shot guy whoever he was in the Salvation Army general, 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.200 and they were all waiting for us there. 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.160 And his Mother Teresa met them. The flight attendant came out. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:16.320 With these two huge trash bags full of sugar packets 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.919 and ketchup packets and salt packets and little candy bars 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:25.720 and whatever else. And you've had these big trash bags. 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.640 And Mother Tessa saw it, and she turns to the 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.240 Salvation Army general, and she says, you work with the poor, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.800 don't you? And she gives him the two trash bags 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.360 full of all of these little things from the airplane. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:51.160 And I don't have any idea what he did with them. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.239 Hearing this story made me wonder about Mother treesa the person, 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.200 The woman who loved to hand out miraculous metals so 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.679 much she ran out. The woman who do anything to 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.399 save a few scraps of food, who was tough enough 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.119 to lead a worldwide organization until months before she died 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.120 at eighty seven. The woman who wrote she knew from 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.639 the beginning she was setting herself up for misery, all 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.560 in service to the poor. I wanted to know more. 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:16.560 She hadn't always been a living saint. She was young 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.680 once she had a whole interior life. How did Mother 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.520 Teresa at the Person become Mother treesat the Icon? I 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.160 wanted to talk with sisters still in the order, but 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.360 finding current sisters who would speak with us was not 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:34.520 easy to do. Gosh, I'm nervous, say my name's at 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:40.760 testing arenalist. Oh yes, my name is Erica Lance. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.040 If you would be willing to chat with me for 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:44.960 a few minutes. 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.160 Or if there's somebody else, try next. A couple of 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.960 times a sister would answer a few questions as long 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.960 as we didn't record. Okay, I totally understand. Oh, you'd 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.520 need permission from the mother house. She said she couldn't 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.000 give me any I'm not I'm not interested in because 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:01.480 his sister personally no. 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.600 Also ended the conversation with God bless sorry, God bless you. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.800 I can't remember which. That was a really quick no. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:08.640 Wow. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.400 I guess that's the way they say goodbye. 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.120 Most of the time they wouldn't talk. I'm getting the 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.760 sound that's still ringing, all right. That time I got 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.640 the busy sogno. Instead, they directed me to a regional house. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.479 The regional houses would direct me to the Bronx House, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:23.160 the main house in the US. 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.000 Oh gosh, just imagine they're in grand silence and this 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.760 phone is ringing and wark stuff. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:29.760 The Bronx House sent me to the Mother Teresa of 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.640 Calcutta Center, which has an amazing website. By the way, 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.360 when you open it you hear music and Mother Teresa's voice. Antz. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.040 But they sent me to the top the mother House 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:43.000 in Kolcutta and the Superior General sister Mary Prama Pierreic 0:04:48.279 --> 0:05:00.680 Sister Prema declined to speak with me. In some respects, 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.000 the refusal to be interviewed makes sense. Mother Teresa wasn't 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.400 always very open with journalists. She was careful about which 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.560 writers and interviewers she talked to, so her followers don't 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.719 like to talk to journalists either. The missionaries of charity 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.560 are very protective of Mother Teresa and the organization. Early on, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.840 I was warned by multiple people, they're not going to 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.720 talk to you, but some former sisters would, sisters who 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.600 knew Mother Teresa, who worked with her directly, who have 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:33.039 stories they haven't shared publicly before. When I say mother Teresa, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:35.479 what comes to mind immediately for you? 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:40.080 Who she was? Because I know her, I know her well. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.240 From Rococo Punch and iHeartMedia. This is the Turning I 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.800 America Lance, Part three. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:06:12.359 Mother, I'm feeling I'm being much too open and not 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.320 guarded enough in a sense for something public. That's my fear. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.920 I mean, I do he have some apprehension about this? 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.080 I don't think Sister Kathleen Hughes worried she'd tell me 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.520 something horrible or some major piece of dirt. I think 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.040 it's just that concern that any imperfect detail could take 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.240 away from all the good Mother Teresa did. In general. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.480 One thing I've noticed is that part of Mother Teresa's 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.839 power is that she's a symbol. I think sometimes there's 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.960 a mindset that any blemish or misconstrule could take away 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.800 from that. And I mean think about it. As an MC, 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.599 you're essentially instructed not to talk much about your life 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.400 with the outside world, don't write about it in letters 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.760 to your family, don't discuss it with outsiders. So talking 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.120 to a journalist, I can see why that might feel 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.520 a little strange, even for exmc's. I can't speak for 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.920 Sister Kathleen, but it was clear she wasn't sure she 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:03.560 wanted to talk. 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.360 It was a definite no from me, and I'm sure 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:09.720 you felt that it was going to be a definite no. 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.320 And then the Holy Spirit just I don't know how 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.560 I did it. He was like, no, you're going to 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.760 do it, and I said, oh, okay. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.280 Let me introduce you to Sister Kathleen. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.640 I was twenty nine years a missionary of charity with 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.600 Mother Trece of Calcutta. I was our first American sister 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.440 to join from the United States. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.240 Even though Sister Kathleen is no longer an MC, Jesus 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:43.160 is still her spouse. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.160 I've lived the last seventeen years as a consecrated woman, 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.320 a consecrated virgin here in the Archdiocese of Boston. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.320 A consecrated virgin is basically a woman declared sacred by 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.040 the Catholic Church, committed to a life of virginity as 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.280 a bride of Christ. She's not a nun per se, 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.720 but Sister Kathleen attends Mass daily and continues her mission 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:04.600 work in the community. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.640 I'm very grateful to God for all my years in 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.680 whichever path He's led me. If I may say that. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.640 Sister Kathleen was drawn to join the MC's the way 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.640 a lot of women were by a British documentary filmed 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.320 in nineteen sixty nine and Kolcutta called Something Beautiful for God. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.120 When she was twenty years old. Sister Kathleen wasn't a 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.760 sister yet. She was a college student in upstate New 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.440 York at Syracuse University. She heard that Something Beautiful for 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.240 God was going to be screened there. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.439 And when I arrived, somehow I mixed up the time 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.959 or was delayed, and I missed the film, and something 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.000 inside of me actually kind of gave a sigh of relief. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.840 I don't know why, it was just instinctive, you know. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.040 And I knew the guy who was the projectionist, and 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.280 he said, why don't you sit down? It's so good, 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.000 I'll just sit here and show it again just to you. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.520 And I thought, oh, dear, I guess I'm going to 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.680 see this. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.480 This film was a big deal because it showed a 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.359 lot of people who Mother Teresa was and it inspired 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.120 a lot of women to join her order, including a 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.680 number of the former sisters we spoke to. So I 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.760 wanted to watch it, and I watched it with Alan, 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:25.840 who's a producer on the show and also my sister. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:27.680 So basically, there was this. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.400 Guy, Malcolm Muggridge who was a TV commentator and filmmaker, 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.920 and he interviewed Mother Teresa in London for TV and 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.679 he honestly thought the interview wasn't very good. 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.040 I think he called it barely usable. 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:45.960 Yeah, but they aired it anyway and it ended up 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:50.520 getting this huge response. So he decided to go to 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.280 Kolkata to make an entire film about her, and it's 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:55.800 this film something beautiful for. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.720 God, It's an interesting film to watch. You see all 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.680 of these Indian locals who are in difficult situations. They're 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.199 sick or dying, they have leprosy. I doubt the film 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.160 crew ask their permission to film them. They don't talk 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.360 with them directly, they don't feature interviews with them. It's 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.000 like Muggrige is interested in what Mother Teresa is doing, 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.079 but not so much in the people she's doing it for. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.240 Yeah, And basically what happens is Mother Teresa shows Muggriage 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.960 around and at one point she comes up to these 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.800 cribs of babies just crammed in these cribs like sardines, 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:36.480 and she picks a baby up that's really a tiny baby, 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:38.560 and she kind of holds it out for the camera 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.520 and strokes the baby's head, and the baby. 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.960 Looks very sick. I could see if you are watching 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:47.600 this and you wanted to help people in the world, 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.040 it's like, well, these people need help. They're right in 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:50.520 front of you. 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.440 And that becomes even more clear when they go to 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.440 the Home for the Dying, where there are just rows 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:03.000 of cots of very thin looking people, their hair cut short, 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.600 and Mother Teresa tells Margridge that they've cared for over 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.199 twenty three thousand people. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.160 There that half of them have died, and Muggridge asks 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.160 this question. He basically says that some people might say, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:15.800 why keep these people alive at all? 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.000 And Mother Teresa says that she wants to show them 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.800 love before they die, and she quotes someone she says, 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.920 they live like animals, but now they die like angels. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:40.520 Now they die like angels. Sister Kathleen watched all of 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.559 this alone in the auditorium in Upstate New York. In 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.720 nineteen seventy three, she joined the Missionaries of Charity, and 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.040 she remembers the first time she met Mother Teresa. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:55.240 Somebody said Mother's here, and when I saw her something 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.600 struck me. I felt like I fell back a little bit. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:05.280 There was a force, a power, a presence that moved 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.520 me somehow, and she said, come, come, and that's how 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:10.120 I met her. 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.280 In the early nineteen seventies, Mother Teresa was just at 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.720 the start of her rise to fame, but over the 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.960 coming years she'd become an international figure, meeting with the 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.760 likes of Kofiannan, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth the 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:27.760 Dalai Lama. There were critiques of Mother Teresa, to be sure, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.680 and we'll get to those. But in the public eye, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:31.839 she was a living saint. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.600 She could look right through you. She would look right 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.760 into your soul, into the depths of your soul. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.600 I loved her she was. I mean, people say, well, 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.600 she's just human and all of that. Yes she was, 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.439 but she was a little bit above humanity. 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.440 Joan Worcester was a sister with the Missionaries of Charity 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.920 in the nineteen eighties, and she said the same type 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:58.079 of thing about Mother Teresa. 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.800 And when you talk to her, you could that because 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:02.679 when she talked to you, she wasn't looking at you 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.640 like we look at each other and we're talking. She 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:05.920 almost looks through. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.920 You, almost, Joan says, like she could see into your soul. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:38.400 But what was in hers? It surprises me sometimes how 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.560 much is it known about Mother Teresa's life. The information 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.640 we do have is often clouded with inaccuracies, repeated over 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:49.400 and over. But here's what we do know. Mother Teresa 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.960 was born in nineteen ten in an Albanian family in 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.720 the city of Scorpia, now part of North Macedonia. Back 0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:00.520 then her name was Anya s Gonya Boyaju. We think 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.880 of Mother Teresa as an impoverished figure, but her family 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.400 was pretty well off. When she was young, her father 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:08.679 was sort of a celebrity in their town. He was 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.559 a member of the town council, a businessman, and an activist. 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.840 But when she was around nine years old, her father died. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.400 He may have been murdered because of his political activism. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.160 A few months after that, seven more close relatives died. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.680 It was the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic, and they'd gotten 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:31.600 the Spanish flu. Years later, when she was famous mother, 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.280 Teresa wouldn't publicly talk about her childhood much, but it 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.080 seems her Catholic family became even more religious after her 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.280 father's death and the loss of her other family members. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.120 As she told Malcolm Muggridge, she felt the religious call 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:46.960 when she was just twelve years old. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.360 And since then this forty years, I've never doubt it 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.120 even for a second, that I've done the right thing. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.600 It was the will of God, that was his choice, and. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.000 That has given you complete serenity and peace. 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.600 And happiness, the happiness that no one can take from them, 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.760 and has never been a doubt or unhappiness. 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.240 When she was eighteen, she joined the Loretto Sisters a 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.720 Roman Catholic order in Ireland known for its schools, and 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.480 so Anya's became Sister Mary Teresa. She chose the name 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.960 Teresa after Saint Terrez, a saint known for valuing simple 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.960 acts of kindness. The Loretto Sisters stationed Sister Teresa and Kolcutta, India, 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.280 the city she becomes synonymous with. 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.800 What happened was when Mother Teresa was here. You know, 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:37.720 she's saw white, a white run city. 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.600 This is Shantony Jacobardy. He's a history professor at the 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.360 University of Kolcutta and an expert on contemporary Indian history. 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.760 In the nineteen twenties and thirties, when Mother Teresa arrived, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:50.680 India was under British rule. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.960 Of course, there was a lot of colonial exploitation. Indian 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.320 industrialization was hampered to a large extent. But you know, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.880 colonial connection also linked up India globally. 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.000 People are moving to Kolkatta from all over. There is 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.840 a Buddhist revivalist movement, and in the thirties it was 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:11.760 an epicenter to the country's film industry. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.520 All the major movie studios were located here. 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.360 With the Loretto Sisters, Mother Teresa Todd at a school 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.840 for girls and later became headmistress. In nineteen thirty seven, 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.680 she took her final vows and, following Loretto custom, became mother. 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.840 She was no longer Sister Teresa. She was now Mother Teresa. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:40.560 Then came September nineteen forty six. Mother Teresa's thirty six 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.800 years old. She's on a train to a retreat in 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.600 the foothills of the Himalayas, and she hears a voice. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.560 The voice, as she called it, it was very clear 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:50.200 and distinct. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.200 That's Father Brian Koladaichik. He's an MC priest and Superior 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.000 General of the MC Fathers. The one person from the 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.520 Missionaries of Charity who agreed to record an interview. He 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.639 edited the book on Mother Teresa's divine calling, compiled her 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.480 personal letters, and studied her spirituality. Father Brian says Mother 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.639 Teresa knew that the voice was Jesus and that Jesus 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.440 told her to follow a new calling. He said to quote, 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.520 give up all and follow him to the slums to 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.280 serve him in the poorest of the poor. In a letter, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.000 Mother Teresa writes that Jesus told her, quote little one, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.000 give me souls, Give me the souls of the poor, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:35.120 little street children. He said, I want Indian missionary sisters 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.000 of charity who would be my fire of love amongst 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.520 the very poor. The sisters that would offer their lives 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.760 as victims of my love, would bring these souls to me. 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.520 Jesus will say, speaking of the poor, they don't know me, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:58.360 so they don't want me. You go and be my life. 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.840 Her call came at a pivotal time in come Cutta's history. 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.400 August sixteen to nineteen, nineteen forty six is known as 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.280 the Great Calcutta Killing in India. Mother Teresa was there. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:11.679 Here's Shantony Chakabardi again. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.840 In nineteen forty six, you had severe communal rats in 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.080 the cities between Hindus and Muslims, as a result of 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.000 which you know, you had dead bodies festering in the 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.360 drains for five to ten days, a lot of people, 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.000 you know, killed or maimed for life. 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.880 Somewhere between five and ten thousand people died. This all 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.320 happened just a month before Mother Teresa heard that voice 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.320 on the train. Then, in nineteen forty seven, India gained 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.520 independence from Britain from the country was partitioned into India 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.560 and Pakistan. Violence broke out near the border with what 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.879 is now Bangladesh. Fifteen million people were displaced from their homes. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.560 Refugees flocked to Kolcutta. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.479 And the first thing which must have struck her was 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.080 the huge number of people simply living on the streets, 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:03.760 and she started catering to them and perhaps to her. 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.480 This strengthened a sense of mission. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.800 After Mother Teresa's calling on the train, she experienced visions 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.119 for months. Father Brian writes that during this time she 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.439 enjoyed an intense degree of union with our Lord. He 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:25.080 likens it to a kind of spiritual ecstasy. Mother Teresa wrote, 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.040 I have been longing to be all for Jesus, to 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.680 identify myself with Indian girls completely, and so love him 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.239 as he has never been loved before. I thought it 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:45.959 was one of my many mad desires. She tells her 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.119 confessor what Jesus said. Eventually she tells the archbishop too. 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.199 She wants to start a new congregation of religious sisters, 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:57.000 as Jesus instructed, but she's rebuffed. They want her to 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.240 slow down. They need prayer and reflection and timed see 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.040 if her call is true. At one point to even 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.920 say she's not allowed to think about it anymore. Mother 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.920 Teresa obeys, but when they open the door, she goes 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.200 full force, writing letter after letter she needs to obey 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.480 Jesus's call too. Finally, after two years it pays off. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.240 The Pope grants her permission to form a new congregation. 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.359 In nineteen fifty, Mother Teresa officially founds the Missionaries of 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:30.680 Charity under the Archdiocese of Kolkatta. By the way, what 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.439 she created was technically a religious institute, not a religious order, 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.280 and they're not actually nuns, they're religious sisters. Nuns live 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.399 contemplative lives, while religious sisters are active out in the world. 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:44.679 But these terms are used interchangeably all the time, and 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:50.000 even former MC sisters will call themselves nuns. The Missionaries 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.320 of Charity started with just twelve sisters. At first, Mother 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.800 Teresa plans they'd live off of just rice and salt, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.320 but she was advised that's not enough to survive on. 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.320 They were an inn Indian sorry is their habit. Mother 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.520 Teresa said. Jesus told her to quote, dress in simple 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.320 Indian clothes, or rather like my mother dressed simple and poor. 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.200 So Mother Teresa chose a sorry that resembled what women 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.320 who swept the street would wear the blue stripes and 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.399 the border would represent the virgin Mary and purity, and 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.399 their mission would be to serve the poor. But not 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:27.399 quite how most people understand it. I think Mother Teresa 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.240 often said that the Empces were not social workers because 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.879 for her, helping the poor was not an end in itself. 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.080 It was the means of expressing love for God. It 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.439 was all for God. Let me explain. In empty houses 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.879 around the world you'll find painted in big letters the 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.320 words I thirst. It comes from the Bible, the Gospel 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:49.719 of John, when Jesus is dying on the cross and 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.399 says I thirst. Mother Teresa interpreted his words metaphorically. She 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.080 said he thirsted not for water, but for love, for sacrifice. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.360 She believed the MC mission was to satiate that thirst, 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:03.800 and the way to do it was to quote love, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:08.720 suffer and save souls. Here's Mother Teresa addressing a group 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:10.760 of sisters before they take their vows. 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:16.520 We are fully consecrated to Jesus to serve the poorest 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.159 of the poor, and by so doing, to say she 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:24.760 it is tusts the tust of Jesus on the cross 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:30.919 for love for souls. By working at the salvation and 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:34.320 sanctification to the poorest of the poor. 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.879 In short, love the poor like you love Jesus and 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.720 bring souls to him. Or you could say conversion. Mother 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:45.520 Teresa knew this would be hard. Father Brian says, she 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:46.640 signed up for suffering. 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:51.640 Your vocation is to love and suffer and save. 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.959 Souls, to love, suffer and say and save souls. 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.960 Because she would say thirst, quench, say shiate Jesus, thirst 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:01.479 for love and souls. 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:07.680 And Mother Teresa did just that, even when her suffering 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.800 became great and she did suffer. This is how she 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.359 put it in her letters. In the work, there will 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.720 be complete surrender of all I have and all I am. 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:25.680 There will be nothing absolutely left. Most of us have secrets, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.800 parts of ourselves we try to hide, and Mother Teresa 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.480 wasn't any different. She labored with a deep darkness, a 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.520 spiritual darkness, but none of the sisters and the congregation knew. 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:38.160 She kept it to herself. 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.280 I've never doubt it even for a second that I've 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:42.840 done that right. 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:44.600 Think it was the will of God, that. 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:49.399 Was his choice, that has given you complete serenity and 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:51.679 peace and happiness. 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.440 The happiness that no one can take from me. It 0:23:55.560 --> 0:24:01.840 has never been a doubt or unhappiness in reality. 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.720 Almost immediately after she formed the MCS, the foundation of 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:09.600 her life cracked. That Jesus, who'd been speaking to her 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:15.360