Mother Teresa

 Mother Teresa

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu

 1910-1997

Yesterday in the rain, the new President of Albania, other dignitaries, and St. E Premte Albanian Orthodox Church led the ceremony dedicating the Albanian cultural garden, and a bronze statue of Mother Teresa. The statue is on Cleveland's Martin Luther King Blvd, formerly Liberty. It is before the city's greenhouse, and is the first garden nearest the lake and the freeway.

The large statue is the work of Kreshnik Xhiku. Xhiku has previously created an equestrian statue of Skanderbeg [previously the most famous Albanian], in Skopje Macedonia, and Rochester Hills Michigan.
 
Cleveland Albanians are not many, and are not of the same composition as those in the old country. Christianity is a minority religion amongst the Albanians in Europe. Many Albanians live outside the borders of  the Albanian state. They are a majority in Kosovo, and the minority in Macedonia.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, in the last years of the Ottoman Turkish sultanate.The name 'Gonxha' means rosebud/little flower. In the picture flowers, mostly roses, are visible. They were placed there during the ceremony.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. — Mother Teresa
By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. — Mother Teresa