Source: The Washington Post
Greg Zingler watched a movie about Mother Teresa six years ago and was awed by the world-famous nun’s compassionate service to the poor. He went to the Basilica of the National Shrine in the District and asked: Is there any chance that any of Mother Teresa’s nuns are here in D.C.?
The Missionaries of Charity keep a low profile — the nuns in the order that Mother Teresa founded refuse interviews, keep to their convent’s grounds at almost all times and don’t even have a website to tell neighbors that they do indeed have a presence here in the District. But Zingler went to the address that the Basilica receptionist gave him, and there a nun agreed to give him a tour of the convent and adjoining nursing home.
“This hallway is where the live-in volunteers stay,” she told Zingler.
The nuns speak of Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, as simply “Mother,” a familiar inspiration who beams down from the walls in almost every room. The first thing one sees upon entering the building is a glass-encased wheelchair that she once sat in, followed by a cabinet full of relics — a tiny square cut from a sheet she once used, a bit of leather from her sandal, a piece of tube used to draw her blood.
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