Kosovo leadership to organize celebrations for Mother Teresa’s 100th birthday

Nov 17, 2009 / 22:50 pm

On Nov. 11 the National Council of Kosovo met for the first time to organize the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Blessed Mother Teresa’s birth.

The Italian bishops new service (SIR) reports that the meeting took place in the Culture Ministry’s palace and was attended by Culture Minister Valton Beqiri, the president’s delegate Xhavit Beqiri, Ali Podrimjia of the Academy of Science and Art of Kosovo and Jusuf Bajraktari of the History Institute of Kosovo.

Fr. Lush Gjergji, a biographer of Mother Teresa, represented the Church in Kosovo at the meeting.

“This special year will open on December 10th 2009 on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of her Peace Nobel Prize,” Fr. Gjergji told SIR News.

Mother Teresa, whose birth name was Gonxha Bjoaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopjie in what was then the Ottoman Empire. Today, the city is capital of the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.

Her parents, of Albanian descent, were born in Kosovo and she often visited the land in her youth.

According to SIR News, she had a special bond with the Marian Sanctuary of Letnica on the Kosovo-Macedonia border.

Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 20, 2003. Approval of her canonization is still pending. Her Feast Day is September 5.