Stamp of a saint

“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.” — Saint Mother Teresa. A great visionary, she started her missionary work with the poor in 1948. On the occasion of her 106th birth anniversary, Mintageworld — an online repository of coins, notes and stamp — launched a docudrama on the history of various stamps and coins launched to celebrate her birth, life and service to human kind.

“For over 68 years, Mother Teresa worked selflessly and tirelessly in India and elsewhere in the world, taught the destitute, healed the sick, fed and clothed the poor, cared for abandoned children, housed lepers and those afflicted with HIV/AIDS and offered dignity in death to desolate souls forsaken by family and society. We wanted to celebrate the goodness she spread through her work in the society,” shares Rajat Agrawal, creative head, Mintageworld.

On the occasion, the team launched a docudrama narrating the story of how she cured people through prayers while tracing her selfless journey. Talking about the docudrama, Rajat says, “There are some amazing stamps and coins issued by India as well as other countries honouring and recognising her work. We wanted to put together a curatorial work featuring the important life events of Mother Teresa for our young audiences in an interactive way. That is when we came up with the idea of a docudrama. These videos are generally around 5 minutes long, narrate important events and act as an easy learning tool for viewers.”

With Mother Teresa recently been elevated to sainthood in a ceremony at the Vatican for her work with the poor in India, the video seems to be an instant hit. “We did not plan this, had we known that she will be honoured with a sainthood, we would have incorporated that bit in the video too. The idea was to celebrate her birth anniversary and we got a lot of views before the announcement of her sainthood,” points out Rajat.

The video features how India Post honoured Mother Teresa for her Nobel Peace prize issuing a 30 paisa coin in 1980 featuring her photograph along with the reverse side of the Nobel Peace Prize medal representing a group of three men forming a fraternal bond. They also issued a special stamp worth '45 on a souvenir sheet in 1997. “Apart from Indian stamps, the video also features coins and stamps issued by other countries and their significance. France, for instance, issued three gold coins of 500, 200 and 50 Euro along with two silver coins of 10 Euro respectively to celebrate her birth centenary. Reserve Bank of India also issued two coins on the occasion of her 100th birth anniversary of '5 and '100.

The team plans to now come up with more such educational videos. “These videos act as a great educational tool. Our World War II video also did very well. While viewers get to know about the event or person in this video, they are also informed about how various countries perceived or celebrated the event through coins and stamps,” concludes Rajat.