Kolkata: It was Blessed Teresa’s last birthday, and the nuns sang their happiest birthday song, eagerly awaiting the next anniversary where they’ll get to celebrate `Saint’ Teresa’s first one.

The Albanian nun, who was born on August 26, 1910, will be canonized at the Vatican in just eight days.

Throughout Friday at Mother House, a steady stream of devotees and admirers visited the stark white tomb, colourfully decorated with flowers on her 106th birthday.

The setting inside the first-floor chapel appeared almost ethereal as nuns in blue-bordered white sarees sat on the floor and prayed in synchronization when Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata, arrived. Incidentally , August 26, is his birthday as well. ” All important people are born in August,” the archbishop jested.

The whole lot of volunteers, nuns and visitors from across the world, had drifted, as it were, to a different world as the archbishop led the prayers. “Today , we’re celebrating the birthday of Blessed Mother Teresa… we pray for the canonization,” Archbishop D’Souza said.

“I guess the veneration, the rituals and the Mass are the same, except for the presence of so many media people. But that’s only expected.It’s the year of the canonization and the time to thank God for the gift of canonization to our Mother,” said Father Rodney Borneo, who was accompanying the archbishop.

Like any other August 26, Sister Blesilla ushered the lensmen into the chapel, insisting on silence, the smile never leaving her face, The Times of India reported.

Sheila Santago, a volunteer from Barcelona (Spain), said, “In a few days she will be revered by the whole world as a saint. No longer as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.” This is the Spanish student’s fourth visit to 54A AJC Bose Road, headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity .

Nuns at Missionaries of Charity had revered Mother since long before she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 at the Vatican and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Members of the congregation be lieve Mother’s work had made her a saint ages ago, and the canonization next week is only symbolic.

Among the attendees were Annan Bhewaretti and his crew from Denver, compiling a documentary on the saint-in-waiting. The shoot that started rolling with Mother’s birthday in Kolkata will move to Rome, then return to the celebrations in Mother House later this month.