This book is dedicated to the memory of Mother Teresa, Ann Blaikie, Bunty Watts and Father Van Exem, to all of whom I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude. I would also like to express my appreciation to the many others - Sisters, Brothers, Co-Workers and priests - throughout the world who have given of their time, talents, hospitality and insight in the preparation of this book. To Cherry Fisher, to John Pawsey my agent, and to all the friends and companions of my journey too numerous to mention individually here, my warmest thanks. To one of them in particular I can pay no more appropriate tribute than to say that she sought at great personal cost to create, as Mother Teresa would have wished, ’something beautiful for God’.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa resisted having her full biography written. Then, in 1991, realizing that accounts of her life and work could inspire others, she gave Kathryn Spink, who had long been intimately involved with the work of Mother Teresa and her order and co-workers around the world, permission to proceed with a complete biography on the understanding that it would not be finished until after her death.

Here, now, is the complete story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a woman regarded by millions as a contemporary saint for her dedication to serving the poorest of the poor. From her childhood in the Balkans as a member of a remarkably openhearted and religious family to her work in India, from attending the victims of war-torn Beirut to pleading with George Bush and Saddam Hussein to choose peace over war, Mother Teresa was driven by an absolute faith. She consistently claimed that she was simply responding to Christ’s boundless love for her and for all of humanity. When People magazine interviewed Kathryn Spink for their cover story on Mother Teresa’s death, Spink told them: "What one has to understand about Mother Teresa is that she sees Christ in every person she encounters." Clad in her white peasant sari with blue edging, Mother Teresa brought to the world a great and living lesson in joyful and selfless love.

PREFACE

The Hidden Treasure

The Will of God

Contemplatives in the World

Poor on the Moon

Sharing the Vision

For the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God

The Gift of Recognition

Works of Peace

A Quiet Storm

Passing on the Mande

Judged on Love

Going Home to God

APPENDICES

A. Complete list of Missionary of Charity Foundations

B. Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

INDEX