Res 0617-2018

By Council Member Gjonaj Whereas, St. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents, in Skopje, now Republic of Macedonia, on August 26, 1910; and Whereas, By the age of 12, St. Mother Teresa felt a strong connection to God and by the age of 18 had left her parental home in Skopje to join the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa took her initial vows as a nun in 1931 and became a teacher of geography and history for girls at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but was distressed by all the poverty she witnessed outside the walls of the school; and Whereas, In 1946, St. Mother Teresa heard what she described as the call to follow Christ and devoted herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa spent two years preparing for the undertaking by taking her vows, studying nursing, and waiting until permission was granted from the Sisters of Loreto and the Archbishop of Calcutta to live and work among the dying poor; and Whereas, Without benefit of any funding, St. Mother Teresa would later remark that she relied solely upon divine providence for the means to carry out her work and began to teach the poorest children of Calcutta in an open air school of her own design; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa would be joined by volunteers-many of whom were her former students-and would begin to receive donations of financial support allowing her to expand the scope of her efforts; and Whereas, In October of 1950, St. Mother Teresa was granted permission from the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church known as the Holy See to start her own order, The Missionaries of Charity, whose primary task was to administer aid and comfort to the sick and dying and the neediest of the needy-especially to those for whom no one else was willing or able to provide care; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa went on to establish a home for the dying in 1957 and a hospital with a center for the blind, the aged and the disabled while caring for those suffering from leprosy; and Whereas, In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the Decree of Praise to St. Mother Teresa's religious order bringing it directly under the supervision of the Vatican and soon thereafter the Missionaries of Charity were established in Venezuela, Italy, Tanzania, Australia and the United States; and Whereas, In 1979, St. Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the destitute and upon receiving the award remarked, "I am not worthy"; and Whereas, On Christmas Eve in 1985, St. Mother Teresa overcame public fear, stigma and opposition while expediting government bureaucracy to open an AIDS hospice in New York City's St. Veronica's church in Greenwich Village to care for 14 terminally ill victims of the disease; and Whereas, Despite her failing health, St. Mother Teresa insisted upon visiting the North American branch of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity located in the South Bronx in 1997 where she would meet with Princess Diana who was also visiting the South Bronx Mission; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa continued her work with the poor until just before her death on September 5, 1997 at which time The Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity numbered 3,914 members, and were established in 594 communities in 123 countries of the world.; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 and then canonized and declared a Saint during a September 4th 2016 ceremony in St. Peter's Square by Pope Francis; and Whereas, St. Mother Teresa is recognized as an international treasure who is beloved by millions of New Yorkers; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York declares September 5th as St. Mother Teresa Day in the city of New York. CD LS 7457 11/8/18 1