By Matters India Reporter

Kolkata, Oct 7, 2025: A documentary titled “Mother Teresa – Prophet of Compassion” was screened at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata on the night of October 7, the congregation’s 75th foundation day.

Produced by senior journalist and author Anto Akkara, the 53-minute film offers a portrait of Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

A media preview of the documentary is scheduled for October 8 at the Archbishop’s House in Kolkata.

Akkara’s documentary draws from his 1995 interview with Mother Teresa and over three decades of engagement with her congregation. It traces the journey of Anjezë Gonxha Bojaxhiu—from her birth in present-day North Macedonia in 1910, to her arrival in India as a Loreto nun, and the founding of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

Today, the congregation has grown to 5,766 members serving in 754 homes spread over 138 countries.

The film unveils several little-known episodes from Mother Teresa’s prophetic life. It recounts how the blue-striped white cotton sarees worn by the MC sisters are woven by leprosy patients at their Titagarh center, which Mother Teresa dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi.

It narrates her persuasion of the Indian Air Force to plant trees at the MC leprosy home in Delhi, and her decision to raffle off a special car gifted by the Pope Paul VI after 1964 World Eucharistic Congress held in Mumbai to raise funds for a leprosy hospital in Shanti Nagar.

A striking moment in the documentary is her request to the Nobel Committee to cancel the customary award dinner, redirecting the funds to support orphans in Kolkata. Equally compelling is her decision in 1993 to decline a Papal invitation to attend World Youth Day in Denver, choosing instead to travel to Borduria in Arunachal Pradesh to confront a local practice—the killing of infants born with deformities.

The film also reflects on how Mother Teresa’s enigmatic service was hailed by national leaders such as President Abdul Kalam, Prime Ministers I.K. Gujral and Atal Behari Vajpayee, and how her relationships with Bengal Chief Ministers Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee were marked by deep mutual respect—Basu as a “brother,” Banerjee as a “sister” to the MC nuns.