Christians in India commemorated the 98th birthday of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa last week with prayers and petitions for peace and harmony between Christians and Hindus in Orissa state.

A special mass was held on August 26 at the headquarters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity (MC) in Kolkata, India, during which an appeal was made for prayers for Christians facing persecution at the hands of Hindu mobs in Orissa.

The Kolkata archdiocese's Father Michael Bhaju led the Mass, during which he appealed to people to pray for peace in Orissa, where thousands have been forced to flee from their homes. He urged nuns to keep their founder's memory alive by following her footsteps in love, reconciliation, truth and gentleness.

The commemoration was attended by hundreds of people, many of them from some of the city's poorest communities, were the Roman Catholic nun dedicated her life's work.

A Catholic source noted that the service had been overshadowed by the violence in Orissa.

MC Sister Maria told the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) that children from the nuns' home for children, who usually come to sing and dance at Mother Teresa's tomb, stayed away this year because of "all the terrible trouble in Orissa".

A wave of violence was sparked late last month by the killing of a Hindu leader, which police blamed on Maoist rebels but Hindu activists claimed was committed by Christian militants. At least 500 Christian homes and 17 places of worship have been burned down, leaving nearly 40,000 people homeless as of Monday, according to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.
At least one MC house was destroyed in the Orissa violence.

Sister Nirmala Joshi, who heads the congregation, told UCA News on August 26 that the congregation has many sisters in Orissa, but "so far they are all safe".

Mother Teresa, an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship, was born on August 26, 1910 and in 1950 founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, which today consists of over 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns and operates 600 missions, schools and shelters in over 120 countries.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work.

The Christian nun renowned the world over for her advocacy work with the poor and helpless, was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".