ANSWERING THE CALL
Photojournalist recalls work in India with Mother Teresa

Pictured above, photojournalist Linda Schaefer enjoys a moment with Mother Teresa. The photograph appears in Schaefer's book, 'Come and See.' At left, Schaefer describes her work with Mother Teresa during a talk St. Mary's Church in Bath.

BATH - A renown photojournalist last week joined a Lenten congregation at St. Mary's Catholic Church to share her unique story of being "called" by God to document the work of Mother Teresa.

Linda Schaefer, whose photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, and international magazines such as Match and Stern, described her work with Mother Teresa before a group of more than 50 parishoners.

She described joining Mother Teresa in India after meeting her during the Nobel Peace Prize winner's 1995 visit to Atlanta. The documentary result of that visit is "Come and See," a richly illustrated account of Mother Teresa's work with the sick and dying through the Missionaries of Charity.

The title of the book refers to the life-changing moment Schaefer met Mother Teresa while photographing her disembarking from a private jet at the Atlanta airport.

According to Schaefer, Mother Teresa looked at her "through the camera lens. ... I put my camera down. She came right up to me and grabbed my hands and stared at me. She looked into my eyes, my heart, and I was transported. ... I heard her say, 'Come and see.'"

Schaefer's subsequent trip to India was not her first. She had visited the country in 1992 with her late husband, who was suffering from cancer. While in India, she actually dreamed about Mother Teresa - a prelude, she said, to being called to "come and see" in 1995.

She returned to India several months after Mother Teresa's Atlanta visit, agreeing to photograph not only the leader of Missionaries of Charity, but the world in which she worked.

And in the process, Schaefer got to know Mother Teresa. "She had that quality of serenity about her, because she didn't judge," Schaefer recalled at St. Mary's.

As events turned out, her sojourn with Mother Teresa came at a a critical moment in the elder woman's life. Mother Teresa already had suffered a heart attack in 1983. In 1996, she underwent surgery to mitigate heart disease, and on Sept. 5, 1997, she died at the age of 87.

By then, her Missionaries of Charity had grown to comprise more than 4,000 sisters and operated missions in 123 countries. Mother Teresa herself was given a state funeral in her adopted country of India (She was born in Macedonia to Albanian parents), and the Vatican beatified her in 2003 with the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of "Come and See" may call St. Mary's at 776-3327.