(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-05 17:38

Catholic nuns from the order of the Missionaries of Charity gather for a special prayer during the tenth anniversary of Mother Teresa's death in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata September 5, 2007. Mother Teresa was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning nun who died in 1997, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 at the Vatican. [Reuters]

There are now more than 4,800 sisters and more than 750 homes around the world, according to the order.

The group has "continued to function in the same spirit and work with the same sincerity among the poor and unprivileged," said Dr Ruma Chatterjee of the Society for the Visually Handicapped, a nonprofit group that works with Mother Teresa's organization.

Sister Nirmala, a Hindu-born Indian convert to Roman Catholicism, now oversees the order. She hasn't become a household name like Mother Teresa, but she never expected to be.

"My way of coping with the challenge is simple - just to be myself," she said earlier this week. "I didn't fill Mother's shoes, that is impossible. I followed the footsteps left by the Mother."

Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 after the Vatican said an Indian woman's prayers to the nun rid her of an incurable tumor, and millions of Catholics have called for her to be elevated to sainthood, a process fast-tracked by the late Pope John Paul II. Under Catholic tradition, an additional miracle attributable to her must be verified for her to become a saint.

While those who worked with her feel confident she will achieve sainthood, they're not worried about when she will be recognized.

"In the heart of people," said Sister Nirmala, "Mother is always a saint."

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