0:00:03 > 0:00:05Her image is as unforgettable
0:00:05 > 0:00:07as her legacy.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11I'm Ann Widdecombe, and today I'm exploring the canonisation of
0:00:11 > 0:00:14the world's most famous nun, Mother Teresa.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Even in her lifetime, she was known as the Saint of the Gutters.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23But, today, Mother Teresa has officially become
0:00:23 > 0:00:26St Teresa of Calcutta.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30I was blessed to meet her, and what I remember is the tiny stature,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34the deep humility, the profound holiness.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37She transformed many thousands of lives,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39and we hear the personal story of one of those.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43Mother Teresa is significant because she gave me a chance
0:00:43 > 0:00:45to have a second life.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47We meet the computer whizz
0:00:47 > 0:00:50whose idea is helping people to be more independent.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54And as it's back to school this week, Claire McCollum
0:00:54 > 0:00:58visits some teachers volunteering in Dunkirk's migrant camp.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01I want them to be safe and I want them to have a future.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Mother Teresa is remembered for her service to others,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18and that's reflected in our music today.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21She once said, "If ever I become a saint,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24"I shall be continually absent from heaven,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27"to light the light of those in darkness on Earth."
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Today, Mother Teresa has become a saint of the Catholic Church.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34She was THE religious icon of the 20th century, known the world
0:03:34 > 0:03:38over for helping the disadvantaged while living among them.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43But it all began here in Dublin when, in 1928,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47a young Albanian woman called Agnes Bojaxhiu
0:03:47 > 0:03:50joined a religious order known as the Loreto Nuns.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56She famously lived out her calling in the slums of Calcutta
0:03:56 > 0:03:58and became known as "the Living Saint",
0:03:58 > 0:04:02after founding the sisterhood the Missionaries of Charity.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Touching the lives of tens of thousands, the sisters built
0:04:05 > 0:04:09homes for orphans and hospices for the dying.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Mother Teresa brought the plight of the poor to the world stage,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17and in 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
0:04:17 > 0:04:23I am very happy to receive it in the name of the hungry,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25of the naked, of the homeless,
0:04:25 > 0:04:32of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared...
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Such was her impact, that ever since her death in 1907, people have been
0:04:37 > 0:04:42debating how soon it would be before Mother Teresa was made a saint.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45I've got a special respect for her,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49and I've been one of many supporting the cause of her sainthood.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52But the processes of that sainthood are not straightforward.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57A saint isn't sort of a posthumous knighthood,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00that somehow or other, after you're dead, you get this little title.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05A sainthood is something that people notice in the life of someone.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09And when they die, there's an attempt to say,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13how can we ascertain, was the sainthood there?
0:05:13 > 0:05:15As well as gathering personal testimonies,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19there also has to be evidence of miracles.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Miracles aren't easy to come by, and a Vatican commission
0:05:22 > 0:05:26investigated claims of unexplained medical cures brought about
0:05:26 > 0:05:30by prayers to Mother Teresa, before two were given papal approval.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Sainthood is a recognition that this person is holy, and a believer
0:05:36 > 0:05:42can turn to them and ask them to intercede for them with God.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47But, for most people, her saintliness lay in her humility.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50If she went for a television interview, she wasn't looking
0:05:50 > 0:05:53at what blouse to put on today or what jacket to put on today.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58She always appeared the same, in this very unworthy dress.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01What do you think she would make of her sainthood?
0:06:01 > 0:06:06That she lived her life according to her insights, her principles,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11and if she found that being a saint could maybe help other people,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13then she would be delighted to do that.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Despite her association with India,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22her religious training began here in Dublin in the Loreto Abbey.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Sister Philomena also began her vocation there, and she met
0:06:26 > 0:06:28Mother Teresa many times.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31I followed the same route as Mother Teresa. I joined Loreto
0:06:31 > 0:06:35in Rathfarnham, Dublin, and I was assigned to India.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40And I worked there in our orphanage in Loreto Entally,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45and many of Mother Teresa's children were brought to that orphanage
0:06:45 > 0:06:46to be educated.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50So I had the privilege of meeting her through those little children.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55I also met her on occasions when we had religious celebrations.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Did you think she was a saint?
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Er, in those days, she was just an ordinary sister, like all of us.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09But we were always aware of the great work she was doing,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13and that she was fulfilling the precept of the gospel.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17"As long as you did it to one of these my least, you did it to me."
0:07:17 > 0:07:22Not only did she do that herself, but she led others.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31# Lord, for tomorrow and its needs... #
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Mother Teresa spent many years in Calcutta,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31teaching some of the world's poorest children.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34The need to educate those on the margins of society is still
0:09:34 > 0:09:38a problem today, as Claire McCollum has been finding out.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45CLAIRE: There's been a refugee camp just outside Dunkirk since 2006,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47but in the last year, the number of migrants
0:09:47 > 0:09:53has grown from around 100 to 2,500, including 200 children.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59And a group of British teachers have come to the camp on a mission.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02They're determined to give those children an education in the
0:10:02 > 0:10:04most difficult circumstances,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07and I've come to find out how they're doing it.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Six. Two times six.
0:10:10 > 0:10:1212. Three times six...
0:10:12 > 0:10:14'So, you were teaching back in the UK...'
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Why did you decide to make the move here?
0:10:17 > 0:10:21I think I came here in the middle of winter and there wasn't
0:10:21 > 0:10:24anything for the children. They were surrounded by mud.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28They were literally wading through mud that was going up to the top
0:10:28 > 0:10:32of my Wellingtons, and everything about that day,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34I remember so clearly as just wrong.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37And we had an opportunity from Christmas to be able to do
0:10:37 > 0:10:40something about it, so that's what we did.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42We came and we said,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44"We're teachers, we can teach, we can educate,
0:10:44 > 0:10:49"we can give them a reason to get up in the morning and just try."
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Yeah, just give them the best of education
0:10:52 > 0:10:53and just do what we can do.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58So, who actually is in the camp here and who comes to the school?
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Largely, we have got a lot of Kurdish people here in the camp.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05When we sit with the children and talk to them about why they're here,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09how they've got here, they are from northern Iraq, from Iran,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11from Turkey, from Syria,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14and they will say, "I'm here because of Daesh."
0:11:14 > 0:11:15And that's their answer.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18And they'll tell you stories about how their village
0:11:18 > 0:11:22has been flattened or how Isis were in the hills behind the village
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and that's why they have left.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27We will see children for two weeks
0:11:27 > 0:11:29or sometimes we will see them for six months.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32We've got a few families that have been here a long time.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34And then suddenly, they're just gone.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38When I'm hearing some of the back stories of the families,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43it's very, very difficult to keep faith with humanity sometimes.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And how has your own faith been tested, would you say?
0:11:46 > 0:11:50I don't think it's been tested. In fact, almost quite the opposite.
0:11:50 > 0:11:55I've had to just give it to God to sort out and do what I can,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59but know, actually, there's so much that I can't help.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03What do you want for the children here?
0:12:03 > 0:12:07I want them to be safe and I want them to have a future.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10They've started to get used to French life, French culture,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13and being introduced to actually being in France.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15We're working with the French authorities at the moment and the
0:12:15 > 0:12:18local mayor's office to actually have more places available in
0:12:18 > 0:12:19French schools for them.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23And, from September, having the children all having places
0:12:23 > 0:12:26available in the local primary and secondary schools, which
0:12:26 > 0:12:29would be a fantastically successful end to this project here in France.
0:12:34 > 0:12:41# When I am down and, oh, my soul, so weary
0:12:42 > 0:12:46# When troubles come
0:12:46 > 0:12:49# And my heart burdened be
0:12:51 > 0:12:54# Then I am still
0:12:54 > 0:13:00# And wait here in the silence
0:13:00 > 0:13:03# Until you come
0:13:03 > 0:13:07# And sit awhile with me
0:13:08 > 0:13:11# You raise me up
0:13:11 > 0:13:17# So I can stand on mountains
0:13:17 > 0:13:20# You raise me up
0:13:20 > 0:13:24# To walk on stormy seas
0:13:26 > 0:13:34# I am strong when I am on your shoulders
0:13:35 > 0:13:42# You raise me up to more than I can be
0:13:44 > 0:13:49# You raise me up so I can stand on mountains
0:13:49 > 0:13:51# Stand on mountains
0:13:51 > 0:13:57# You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
0:13:57 > 0:13:59# Stormy seas
0:13:59 > 0:14:06# I am strong when I am on your shoulders
0:14:06 > 0:14:08# Ooh, ooh
0:14:08 > 0:14:10# You raise me up
0:14:10 > 0:14:14# To more than I can be
0:14:16 > 0:14:22# You raise me up so I can stand on mountains
0:14:22 > 0:14:24# Stand on mountains
0:14:24 > 0:14:30# You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
0:14:30 > 0:14:32# Stormy seas
0:14:32 > 0:14:40# I am strong when I am on your shoulders
0:14:40 > 0:14:48# You raise me up to more than I can be
0:14:52 > 0:14:55# You raise me up
0:14:57 > 0:15:05# To more than I can be. #
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Coming up later,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20two very different people whose lives changed forever when
0:15:20 > 0:15:24they met at one of Mother Teresa's homes for orphaned children.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28The words to our next piece of music were written by another Teresa -
0:15:28 > 0:15:32St Teresa of Avila - nearly 500 years ago,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35and they have a resonance on this very special day.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46# Christ has no body now
0:15:46 > 0:15:51# But yours
0:15:51 > 0:15:54# No hands
0:15:54 > 0:16:01# No feet on earth but yours
0:16:01 > 0:16:07# Yours are the eyes with which he sees
0:16:07 > 0:16:12# Yours are the feet with which he walks
0:16:12 > 0:16:15# Yours are the hands
0:16:15 > 0:16:22# With which he blesses all of us
0:16:22 > 0:16:28# Yours are the hands
0:16:36 > 0:16:42# Christ has no body now
0:16:42 > 0:16:46# But yours
0:16:46 > 0:16:49# No hands
0:16:49 > 0:16:56# No feet on earth but yours
0:16:56 > 0:17:03# Yours are the eyes with which he sees
0:17:03 > 0:17:08# Yours are the feet with which he walks
0:17:08 > 0:17:11# Yours are the hands
0:17:11 > 0:17:18# With which he blesses all of us
0:17:18 > 0:17:25# Yours are the feet
0:17:32 > 0:17:37# Christ has no body now
0:17:37 > 0:17:42# But yours
0:17:42 > 0:17:45# No hands
0:17:45 > 0:17:53# No feet on earth but yours
0:17:53 > 0:17:59# Yours are the eyes with which he sees
0:17:59 > 0:18:05# Yours are the feet with which he walks
0:18:05 > 0:18:07# Yours are the hands
0:18:07 > 0:18:14# With which he blesses all of us
0:18:16 > 0:18:21# Yours are the hands
0:18:21 > 0:18:26# Yours are the feet
0:18:34 > 0:18:43# Yours are the eyes. #
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Saints are a source of inspiration to me.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Especially when I'm feeling doubtful or downcast.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Inspiration comes in many different forms,
0:19:02 > 0:19:04and from many different places.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08Our next story was inspired by the basic need to feed oneself.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Grant Douglas is a computing expert
0:19:12 > 0:19:16with a successful career in IT support.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18He also has cerebral palsy.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20This lifelong condition
0:19:20 > 0:19:24makes seemingly simple everyday tasks very difficult.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28But that didn't stop Grant designing something beautifully simple
0:19:28 > 0:19:31that has helped him and hundreds of others.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44When his mum had to stop to answer the phone,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47Grant began to wonder how he could eat his cornflakes by himself,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49without spilling the cereal.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00This spark of an idea remained in his mind
0:20:00 > 0:20:02until the church's Christmas fair.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16Fellow church member Rosi overheard him talking about his great idea.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21I thought, "I've got a friend who has a design technology company,"
0:20:21 > 0:20:23and I thought, "Well, I might approach him
0:20:23 > 0:20:25"to see if he could help."
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Soon, Grant had a prototype spoon.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Grant decided he was going to try to bring his new spoon to market,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44but that would take ?16,000.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Again, the answer came from Grant's church,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49which raised the funds through donations.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Pat Morrison was one of the first customers.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Well, I suffer from Parkinson's disease,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59and it's wonderful for eating rice,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02or something of that nature.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06And it does give you more confidence.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10But the S'up Spoon's success has not been limited to Edinburgh.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43I've never heard Grant be angry with God,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48or resent the fact that he has this disability,
0:21:48 > 0:21:53and I think it's his faith that inspires us all.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I visited Mother Teresa's mission in Calcutta,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13where she and her Missionaries of Charity
0:24:13 > 0:24:18touched the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22And, next, a remarkable story of two individuals
0:24:22 > 0:24:26from very different worlds, whose paths crossed at that orphanage.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Gautam Lewis was abandoned by his birth parents as a small child.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36He was suffering from polio, and was taken in by Mother Teresa.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Because of my disability, it meant I couldn't just run around.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45So there was many days and hours of just being in the cot,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49and not really having a childhood
0:24:49 > 0:24:52like you would imagine someone at kindergarten to have.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Dr Patricia Lewis, then volunteering in Calcutta
0:24:55 > 0:24:58at a rehabilitation centre for children,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02regularly visited Mother Teresa's children's home.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06When I met Gautam first, he was five years old
0:25:06 > 0:25:11and he had had polio, probably since he was about 18 months,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and so he was immobile most of the day.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19And I had worked out that this foreign person...
0:25:21 > 0:25:24..I could get her attention by playing with the cats.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27His favourite way was to grab the cat
0:25:27 > 0:25:30because he knew I loved the cat, so he would make me come running.
0:25:30 > 0:25:36I soon started to form a nice bond with her, and I don't know,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41but maybe, because I was so used to surviving,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44I saw her as my way out.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48So maybe I made her want to love me.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50If I can say that!
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Why would I, in my sort of mid-20s,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55single person, just about to begin her career, adopt a child?
0:25:55 > 0:25:59But I loved him. He was lovely. He was such a cute kid,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and he was so funny and intelligent and sweet
0:26:02 > 0:26:05and, yeah, it just made sense.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Everything that Patricia has done for me is beyond amazing and
0:26:10 > 0:26:15if I could be a little bit of what Patricia is, then I'd be very happy.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Patricia's choice changed Gautam's life beyond recognition.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25He was educated at England's best schools and would later work
0:26:25 > 0:26:27as a pilot and a photographer.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33I was once one of India's poorest,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37with very little hope of a future.
0:26:38 > 0:26:44But I became one of England's luckiest.
0:26:44 > 0:26:51There has to be some form of a miracle that connected my life path
0:26:51 > 0:26:55to cross with Mother Teresa's at that point in time.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00When I went to visit Mother Teresa's tomb,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03I found it very hard to hold back the tears.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06There was a very strange...
0:27:06 > 0:27:08It's almost like an electrical...
0:27:08 > 0:27:13There was some electricity feeling that was going around my brain,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17and I don't know what it is. Maybe she knew I was sitting there
0:27:17 > 0:27:19and she was just trying to say hello.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24Mother Teresa had the spiritual connection with people
0:27:24 > 0:27:30that she saw in them the life of Christ, the suffering, the spirit,
0:27:30 > 0:27:31and connected with that.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36And I am just one of thousands of children around the world
0:27:36 > 0:27:43who has been given a place of feeling safe and loved.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Yeah! You've done it!
0:27:51 > 0:27:53# Wonderful...
0:28:07 > 0:28:08# No eye...
0:28:37 > 0:28:38# Beautiful one...
0:29:23 > 0:29:24# Beautiful...
0:29:38 > 0:29:39# Beautiful one... #
0:30:03 > 0:30:07Next week, the 15th anniversary of 9/11,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Sally meets Christians who have responded with faith, hope and love
0:30:11 > 0:30:13in the face of attacks on their freedom.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19But until then, on the day that Mother Teresa becomes St Teresa,
0:30:19 > 0:30:21a hymn that's a prayer for the world
0:30:21 > 0:30:23of which she would certainly approve.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08ORCHESTRA PLAYS: CARMEN - PRELUDE BY GEORGES BIZET
0:34:08 > 0:34:10HE PLAYS RANDOM NOTES
0:34:10 > 0:34:13ORCHESTRA CONTINUES WITH RANDOM NOTES ON DOUBLE BASS
0:34:13 > 0:34:16Coming soon, our Virtual Orchestra world premiere
0:34:16 > 0:34:18at the Last Night Of The Proms celebrations.
0:34:18 > 0:34:19HE PLAYS DISCORDANT NOTES