Skopje: Blessed Mother Teresa appears as a “religious freak” in the vast literature on her because of a failure to approach her in a wider, complex and multilayered context, says British author and Mother Teresa scholar.
Albanian-born UK-based Gëzim Alpion said this on September 12 at Skopje, Mother Teresa’s birth place at a symposium. The event marked the 65th anniversary of the Inspiration Day which launched the Missionaries of Charity on September 10m 1950.
Mother Teresa scholars from the United Kingdom, Albania, Kosova, and the Republic of Macedonia, members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Skopje, politicians, religious personalities, and media representatives participated in the historic event organized by the town’s Mayor Mr Izet Mexhiti.
Alpion and Dom Lush Gjergji were the keynote speakers.
Alpion, a sociologist at the University of Birmingham, England, spoke on Human dignity at the heart of Mother Teresa’s charity work.
He is now the deputy director of Sociology and director of Joint Honours and Combined Programmes in the School of Government and Society in the University of Birmingham.
In his talk, Alpion identified the main four stages of Mother Teresa’s charity work: first, the influence of tradition – family, religion, city of Skopje, and her Albanian roots – during the 1910-1928. The second stage is her motives to become a nun; third, her disappointment in India as a result of the nature of the missionary work she carried out from 1929-1946 as a member of the Loreto Order.
The fourth state included the challenges she encountered before and after she set up the Missionaries of Charity Order in 1950.
In his presentation, Alpion stressed the gap in Mother Teresa literature regarding her formative years, and the benefits that come from studying them.
The motives that made Mother Teresa choose a religious vocation was approached in the context of the circumstances that her family, the Albanian nation, and the Balkans went through at the start of the 20th century.
The disappointment she experienced during the first 17 years of her religious life in India was analyzed with the purpose of highlighting that her choice of India was not a coincidence. In this part of the talk it was also emphasized that by mid 1940s Mother Teresa was clear on the challenges awaiting missionaries in post-independence India.
Alpion concludes that defending human dignity was at the heart of the charity work of this Albanian visionary who remains the best representative of the values of the volatile Balkans in modern times.
Further explaining significance of the event Prof Alpion said, “it is important because it takes place in Mother Teresa’s native city which she loved dearly in spite of the bitter memories she had there.”
Since 2011 Alpion has been working on a new book on Mother Teresa where he will uncover for the first time important information about her first 18 years in Skopje thus filling the gap about this crucial stage in her life that is noticeable even in the best biographies of Mother Teresa to date.
What is specific about this forthcoming study states Prof Alpion, “is the attention I pay not just to Mother Teresa’s ancestors but also to the history of Christianity in Dardania, a region of Illyria, which present day Kosova and Western Macedonia were part of.”
Alpion does not hesitate further to state “Mother Teresa, I emphasize in the early part of the study, was born and brought up in a diocese that embraced Christianity since apostolic times.”
“Uncovering the roots of Christianity in Skopje helps us understand better not only Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, as she was known until she became a nun at eighteen, but also the international religious personality she became from 1950 onwards, and especially since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.”
Alpion authored in 2007 the acclaimed study ‘Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?’ and a second book in 2008 entitled ‘Encounters with Civilizations: From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa’, insists, “failure to approach Mother Teresa in this wider, complex, multi-layered context is the main reason why she is often portrayed and appears as a ‘religious freak’ in the vast literature on her.”
Considered ‘the most authoritative English-language author’ on Mother Teresa, Alpion’s articles on British, Balkan, Middle Eastern and Indian politics, culture and identity have appeared in a number of international newspapers such as ‘The Guardian’, ‘Hindustan Times’, ‘The Middle East Times’, and ‘The Hürriyet Daily News’.
He has also been lobbying for several years for the construction of the Arbëri Road, an international highway that will improve significantly the infrastructure between Albania, Kosova, Macedonia and Bulgaria, and a signature campaign for the speedy canonization of Mother Teresa.