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July 30, 2020ADA – Standing face-to-face with Mother Teresa on an airport tarmac 25 years ago set in motion Linda Schaefer’s professional path forward and eventual conversion to Catholicism.
Schaefer had been fascinated with Mother Teresa since the petite nun was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
“I felt this inner spark, this inner desire to know more about her,” she said.
On June 15, 1995, working as a freelance photojournalist for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, she had the opportunity to meet and photograph the future saint.
“She walked right up to me and took my hands. She didn’t actually say the words, but I heard her say, ‘Come and see,’” Schaefer said. “When she looked at me, the only thing I could compare it to was like looking into the eyes of Jesus.”
Less than two months later, Schaefer accepted the invitation to “come and see” and went to Calcutta, where she was given rare permission to document the work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity.
Schaefer always was drawn to photograph the “back areas of life,” like people living in abandoned buildings in Brooklyn, in a way that showed their dignity. Recording the sisters’ work in Calcutta gave a deeper meaning to her own work, she said.
She took thousands of photographs, but only after she experienced the chores herself. Before granting permission to document the missionaries, Mother Teresa sent her to volunteer at an orphanage.
Schaefer spent six months in Calcutta and returned home in January 1996. Mother Teresa both retired and died the following year. The photographer’s timing proved to be “the last window” to encounter the nun.
That experience evolved into her continuing mission to research and document the life and legacy of Saint Teresa of Calcutta.
This year Schaefer – a parishioner at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Ada – received two awards for “Encountering Mother Teresa” (2019), her second book published by Our Sunday Visitor. It placed first for Coffee Table/Religious Art in the Catholic Press Association Awards and placed second in the biography category of the Association of Catholic Publishers 2020 Excellence in Publishing Awards.
“Encountering Mother Teresa” features photographs Schaefer took during three trips to Calcutta and at the beatification and the canonization of Mother Teresa in Rome. The book also includes chapters from Schaefer’s interviews with some of Mother Teresa’s closest friends and co-workers.
Her first book, “Come and See: A Photojournalist’s Journey into the World of Mother Teresa,” was published at the time of the nun’s 2003 beatification. Schaefer appeared live on CNN, BBC and Sky News at the event.
While in Rome, she was inspired to convert to the Catholic faith. During the 15 years she did freelance work for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Schaefer was invited to join the Catholic Church many times.
“I felt privileged to work for the Catholic community in Atlanta, but organized religion did not appeal to me,” she writes in her new book. “Mother Teresa herself never asked about my faith, but twice on my trip in 1995 she told me, ‘Pray, my child, pray.’”
At the beatification, Schaefer “felt compelled for the first time to join the Catholic Church,” which she and her young son did after she returned from Rome.
For the next decade, Schaefer spoke throughout the United States about the nun who had dedicated her life to the poor and marginalized.
She accepted a faculty position at East Central University in Ada in 2007, and the following year took three of her journalism students to Calcutta to volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity and report on the experience.
With the coronavirus pandemic in full swing, Schaefer is unable to do her normal speaking engagements or travel to India. Instead she is volunteering with the Gospel of Life Dwellings (GOLD) established and overseen by Sister Maria Faulkner. The homes give elders life-affirming care, free of charge.
“I found Sister Maria right here in my backyard and she is keeping me busy,” Schaefer said. “She reminds me in so many ways of Mother Teresa. Sister Maria is much more extroverted, but there is that same drive.”
K.S. McNutt is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Photo: Linda Schaefer and Mother Teresa. Photo Sally Martin.
Book cover photo: Linda Schaefer
