Mother Teresa's life and legacy are celebrated in new collection of Raghu Rai's photos

“If we pray, we will believe. If we believe, we will love. If we love, we will serve.” — Mother Teresa

A new volume published by the Aleph Book Company brings together Raghu Rai’s photographs of Mother Teresa. Titled Saint Teresa of Calcutta: A Celebration of Her Life and Legacy, the book features gorgeous black and white photographs that detail Mother Teresa’s work, the Missionaries of Charity, her funeral, and canonisation by the Vatican.

In the introduction to this volume, Raghu Rai writes:

“Long before Pope Francis canonised Mother Teresa on 4 September 2016, I thought of her as a saint. In fact, I entitled my second book on her, published a decade ago, Saint Mother, overruling my publisher on the matter. The spiritual aura that surrounded her impressed itself upon all those who spent any time with her. Malcolm Muggeridge, one of her earliest biographers, writes in his wonderful book, Something Beautiful for God: ‘Something of God’s universal love has rubbed off on Mother Teresa, giving her homely features a noticeable luminosity; a shining quality.’ Every time I met her, that spiritual power, that ‘luminosity’, would immediately make itself manifest. For me, the divinity that was present in Mother was most apparent in her eyes and her touch. I would prepare myself mentally, physically and spiritually every time I went to meet her, but all those preparations would come to naught at her touch. She would take my hands in hers and I would feel a great energy flowing through her to me—revitalising me, restoring me to myself.”

Here is a collection of Raghu Rai’s photographs from the book, reproduced here with permission from the Aleph Book Company. The captions are Mother Teresa’s quotes.