Kolkata, Sep 3 

Mother Teresa's canonisation would take place thousands of miles away at the Vatican, but her adopted city Kolkata would be a part of the historic occasion on Sunday.

From giant screens beaming live her canonisation to projection of songs and films depicting her journey and holding special prayers, the eastern metropolis is all set to match the Vatican on the big day.

The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), which set up the Mother's Wax Museum, has put up screens at strategic locations in the city's satellite township Newtown area for showing the sainthood process of the Albanian nun.

The screens would also put out slideshows on the life and times of Mother Teresa, who made Kolkata her home and set up the Catholic order Missionaries of Charity, hailed across the globe for its service to the poorest of the poor and the infirm.

Similar screens have also been installed in the city by various clubs.

While a series of events including a "Thanksgiving Holy Eucharist" have been lined up to celebrate the occasion, the city would observe this Sunday with solemn prayers to be conducted by the Archdioceses of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity.

Gautam Lewis, once a polio stricken child who found his home in the Missionaries of Charity (MoC), will be releasing 'Mora Gaang' - a song dedicated to the Mother.

The song which begins with "Oh, beautiful sky, Oh mother, hold me up, let me fly", blends Indian melody with contemporary western rhythms and will be launched simultaneously across 220 countries on Sunday.

Lewis is also organising an exhibition of photographs depicting Mother Teresa's life and his own childhood and "Mother Teresa and Me" -- a film documenting the orphanage where he once lived.

While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is at the Vatican to attend the canonisation, her government has drawn up elaborate plans to use the occasion and boost tourism.

According to state tourism minister Gautam Deb, Mother Teresa's life and her works would be put on the state tourism website giving a glimpse of the Mother's life in the city.

Among the several places associated with her, the tourists have been making a beeline to visit the "Mother House", the global headquarters of the MoC in the city.

People brave rain to visit Mother House

Kolkata, Sep 3 (IANS) On the eve of her canonisation in Vatican City where Pope Francis will confer sainthood on Mother Teresa, people on Saturday braved the rain to visit the city's "Mother House" -- the Nobel Laureate's final resting place.

The old building where the globe's most famous nun once lived, has been a pilgrimage for Christians.

With just some hours remaining to her sainthood, people have been making a beeline to pay homage to Mother Teresa who attracted worldwide admiration for her services to the poor and the downtrodden.

She has never seen Mother, but it was her work that inspired Amanda Kreuzer -- a Swiss citizen -- to leave her native land and settle in Kolkata.

"I came here eight years back. Mother was dead when I was here. But her book and services drew me to visit Kolkata taking three months' leave from work. After that, I came down now not to be part of this show, but to settle down here because of my love for Mother Teresa," Amanda told IANS.

Now a pensioner, the 60-year-old worked as a medicine assistant in Andermatt -- a mountain village in Switzerland -- before eventually moving to Kolkata.

"I feel Mother also had no religion. She only knew to love and spread love. Help those who needed it without any colour," she said.

Farhat Abbas, a shopkeeper near the Mother House, vividly remembers his encounter with Mother Teresa.

"I met Mother many times as she used to take this route while going to her house," Abbas said.

"I have seen her, bent like the way these nuns (pointing at two of her disciples who got down from a cab and took the same route to the house) and on her way if any needy came across her, she would stop then and there and help.

"She was very fleet footed. She had no air about her. She used to entertain all kinds of people at anytime of the day," said Abbas who along with many of his ilk hopes to do brisk business throughout the week.

A Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1979, Mother Teresa's elevation to Catholicism's celestial pantheon comes on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death in the Kolkata slums with which she is synonymous.

The revered yet controversial nun had her sceptics too, who feel she has not done anything significant to be anointed so high.

Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who served as Kolkata mayor from 2005 to 2010, recently said: "She had no significant impact on the poor of this city."

Miracle woman' Monica Besra will pray to mark Mother's sainthood

Kolkata, Sep 3 

As the Vatican confers sainthood on Mother Teresa on Sunday, thousands of miles away in a nondescript West Bengal village, a tribal woman will be deeply engrossed in prayer.

Monica Besra, whose "miraculous cure" started the process of declaring the Mother a saint, will seek her blessings even as the renowned nun is canonised by Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Monica is distraught at not being able to make it to Vatican, but for this tribal woman of South Dinajpur district -- whose cure led to the Mother's beatification, the first step towards sainthood, in 2003 -- this moment is equally ecstatic. 

"Ever since it was declared that the Mother will become a saint, I wanted to go to Vatican. But things did not work out. I wanted to be there to witness this historic event," said Besra, who was present at the beatification ceremony conducted by then Pope John Paul II at St Peter's Square in the Vatican 13 years ago.

"But that hasn't lessened our happiness. I, along with my entire family and neighbours, will hold special prayers so that her blessings continue to shower on us," Besra told IANS over the phone.

Diagnosed with a cancerous ovarian tumour and facing death, Besra was "miraculously cured" in 1998 during prayers with some nuns of the Missionaries of Charity -- the Mother's order -- on the occasion of the first anniversary of her death.

Besra has said in earlier interviews that she was so sick and could barely walk when she found herself before a photo of Mother Teresa. It was then that she saw a "blinding light". The nuns are then said to have pressed a religious medallion on her belly -- and when she awoke a few hours later, she was cured.

Besra's cure was subsequently recognised by the Vatican and Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 as the "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

Despite Vatican's acceptance of her cure as a miracle, some doctors were sceptical and claimed Besra was cured by medical treatment. They have maintained that all she was suffering from was a cyst, not a tumour, and recovered after prolonged tuberculosis treatment. 

But today, Besra, who is about 50 years old, does not dwell on the controversies. The Mother's canonisation is a special moment, she said, not only for herself and her family, but for most of the residents in Nakor village, some 400 km from Kolkata.

"Besides holding prayers, we will be distributing sweets. Sunday is a special day for us for the entire village," Besra's son Raghunath said.