Chennai: A day before Mother Teresa’s canonization, students of a school in Chennai, southern India, designed a 1000-feet long greeting scroll to honor the world-renowned Catholic nun.
More than 2,000 students of Chennai’s Vidhya Matriculation Higher Secondary School wrote messages, drew floral designs and stuck pamphlets on the five-feet-wide scroll stuck along the walls of the school auditorium.
Several students pasted pictures of Mother Teresa alongside world leaders like Ronald Reagan and Princess Diana. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa too featured in the scroll, reports ndtv.com
Kindergarten students left imprints of their tiny colored palms on the scroll and other students dotted the Medavakkam-Sholinganallur road displaying the quarter-kilometer greeting banner.
A student expressed happiness over the honor bestowed upon Mother Teresa by the Vatican, saying, “Canonization is making one a saint. We are happy that Mother Teresa has been recognised for this.”
Pope Francis will declare Mother Teresa a saint at a special function in the Vatican on September 4.
“Mother Teresa’s values are still relevant and it’s important that we inspire children telling them about her contribution,” school head master Jayaseelan said. He also said it was important to teach students values early in their life.
Mother Teresa worked with the poorest of the poor in the sprawling metropolis of Kolkata for nearly four decades, having initially come to the city as a missionary teacher with Ireland’s Loreto order.