SEEKER OF SOULS

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The order's Home for the Dying in Calcutta also attracted criticism. Unlike in modern hospices in the West, the dying at the mission home are not provided with pain-killing drugs. In November 1996 a German volunteer questioned one of Teresa's nuns. "I have heard you don't give any medicines," he said. The nun replied, "This is not a treatment center. This is a place where the dying can die with dignity."

For decades Mother Teresa was elected head of the order with only one dissenting vote: her own. But in the fall of 1996, she nearly succumbed to heart disease, and the sisters realized it was time to elect a successor. In March, 123 representative nuns gathered to pray for wisdom and chose a Hindu Brahmin convert named Sister Nirmala, whom one called a compassionate "carbon copy" of their revered leader.

The woman who has taken Teresa's place demurs, saying, "I'm not Mother Teresa; I'm Sister Nirmala. Please don't call me Mother." This 64-year-old, 4-ft. 10-in. nun, who sometimes refers to distances by the number of Rosaries she can pray while traveling them, did not make her Christian conversion until age 17. She was moved to a new faith by the terrible religious carnage that attended the Indian partition in 1947 and by observing Mother Teresa in Calcutta, years later, attending to its refugees. "It was inspiration at first sight," says Nirmala, who became one of the order's first volunteers.

Teresa sent her to law school and made her the Missionaries' legal counsel. In 1965 Nirmala traveled to Venezuela to establish the order's first overseas mission; four years later, she was called back to Calcutta to join its contemplative wing, which emphasizes the mystical power of prayer, something dear to the heart of Teresa. As time went on, Nirmala acted as Teresa's nurse and companion. Now it is her turn to rely on Teresa's spiritual guidance. Even though she may be afraid, she has said, "Looking at God, I am sure I will be able to do what I have been chosen for."

That will surely be different. Despite her celebrity status and a flourishing empire, Mother Teresa had a faith that was not of this world. She was intent on saving souls in an era that no longer believed souls existed. She confounded and overcame that skepticism with the paradox attributed to St. Francis of Assisi nearly eight centuries ago: in giving we receive; in dying we are born to eternal life. It was not a message the 20th century expected to hear or wanted to learn, and Teresa angered many with her simple, hardheaded adherence to it. But to many others, the rewards of her example were enormous. As hundreds of mourners gathered at Calcutta's mother house last week, a weeping Muslim driver explained, simply, "She was a source of perpetual joy," a holy commodity indeed.

--Reported by Subir Bhaumik and Meenakshi Ganguly/Calcutta and Tim McGirk/New Delhi