Why are modern spiritual icons absent in celebrity studies? The role of intermediaries in enhancing Mother Teresa’s advocacy in India and Australia prior to the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize

ABSTRACT

There is increasing consensus amongst scholars from various academic disciplines that the influence of celebrity culture on our lives is compatible to the function and impact of religion prior to the Enlightenment. Notwithstanding the growing body of literature on the correlation between celebrity culture and faith, so far little has been written on how they affect each other. The absence of spiritual icons in celebrity studies is also noticeable. This study explores the interrelationship between religion and celebrity culture by focusing on Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta and Melbourne during the 1949-1978 period. By the time the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize turned the nun into a global luminary, she was already a celebrity largely because of continued media interest in her work despite lacking a ‘newsworthy’ private life. The article also examines the role of some of her little-known and hitherto unknown supporters in constructing her image as a spiritual and humanitarian icon. The study concludes that the interconnection between Mother Teresa’s personal life, especially her spiritual darkness, and her ministry, her collaboration with the media, and the contribution of intermediaries in enhancing her advocacy collectively illustrate why religious celebrities should no longer be sidelined in celebrity studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Celebrity studies
• modern spiritual icons
• media
• Mother Teresa
• intermediaries
• celebrity advocacy
• spiritual darkness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Calcutta’s English newspaper Amrita Bazaar Patrika ran from 1868 until 1991.

2. The phrase ‘the dark night of the soul’ comes from a literal translation of the title of the poem La noche oscura del alma by the 16th-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross. In Roman Catholic spiritual theology, the concept of ‘the dark night’ refers to a period of extreme spiritual desolation that eventually leads to a complete mystical union with God.

3. In 2012, the Australian Parliament issued a posthumous apology to Peter Norman (1942–2006), thus recognising his role in promoting racial equality.

4. The information about Filomena Babaçi-Çuni and her family, included in this article, comes from interviews the author conducted with her daughter Rosa Çuni-Kuka and granddaughters Mary Lehtonen and Teresa Tanti in Melbourne in November 2011 and April 2013.

5. The author covers Filomena’s relationship with Mother Teresa in two studies, Rooting Mother Teresa: The Saint and Her People and Filomena: Mother Teresa’s Forgotten Sister, due for publication in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

6. All the information about Filomena and her family and the supporting documents mentioned and quoted in this article come from and are used with the kind permission of Rosa Çuni-Kuka.

7. Launched in 1840, The Herald merged in 1990 with sister morning newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial to form The Herald Sun.

8. The author regrets that the clipping of the editorial ‘When cousins meet’, secured from the Çuni-Kuka family archive, does not include the title of the Australian newspaper that ran it.

9. Deriving from Latin ‘let it be printed’, imprimatur is a declaration authorising the publication of a book.

10. The author regrets that the clipping of Rod Kirkpatrick’s article, titled ‘A fight for dignity as well as money’, secured from the Çuni-Kuka family archive, does not include the title of the Australian newspaper that ran it.

11. The author is currently working on the study Can Humans Know God? – Mother Teresa’s Spiritual Conundrum, which identifies the main stages of her dark night of the soul.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gëzim Alpion

Gëzim Alpion has a BA from Cairo University and a PhD from Durham University, UK. He lectured at the Universities of Huddersfield, Sheffield Hallam and Newman before joining the Department of Sociology at the University of Birmingham in 2002. His publications include Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity? (Routledge, 2007), Encounters with Civilizations: From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa (Routledge, 2017), and a number of studies in academic journals and edited collections. Sponsored by Arts Council England, Alpion’s plays Vouchers (2001) and If Only the Dead Could Listen (2006) were well-received in England in the 2000s. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Conversation, Hindustan Times, The Middle East Times, and The Hürriyet Daily News. In recent years, Alpion has delivered over 50 keynote addresses and talks in 15 countries.