2016-09-15 16:10:00

Subrata Ganguly, an admirer of St. Teresa of Calcutta


The sainthood conferred by Pope Francis on Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 4 here in the Vatican, was greeted with great enthusiasm and celebration across the globe, especially in India, but more specially in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, the capital of eastern India’s West Bengal state, that the Albania-born nun adopted as her home town.  Among the estimated 120,000 faithful and admirers of Mother Teresa from across the world who were proud to be the first-hand witnesses of the canonization ceremony here in St. Peter's Square was Mr. Subrata Ganguly, a businessman from Kolkata.  Mother Teresa and Mr. Ganguly have much more in common than just being from the same city. 

From his surname,  Mr. Ganguly is a Hindu Brahmin, a non-Christian, but he is no stranger to Christian art.  Perhaps he is more versed in Christian art than most Christians.  A mechanical engineer turned businessman, Mr. Ganguly is the owner and CEO of Church Art,  a unit of Lokenath Engineering of Kolkata, engaged in designing and manufacturing a wide variety of art works for Christian churches, schools, institutions and museums all over India and also abroad.  

Ahead of the Sept. 4 canonization of Mother Teresa in the Vatican, Mr. Subrata Ganguly paid his special homage to Mother Teresa, immortalizing her in a life-size bronze statue that will endure the ravages of time for a very long time to come.  Mr. Ganguly headed the designing, sculpting and finally installing the 1.6 meter tall statue weighing about 240 kilos in the Archbishop's House in Kolkata, next to the statue of St John Paul II. The figure cast in Bangkok, Thailand, was financed and donated by entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr Namit Bajoria, another Hindu, who is the Designate Honorary Consul of the Republic of Macedonia in Kolkata.   The Chief Minister of West Bengal state, Ms Mamata Banerjee unveiled the statue at a special function on August 26, on Mother Teresa's 106th birth anniversary. But there’s much more between Mother Teresa and Mr. Ganguly, as we come to know from this interview with him. 

Listen:   








All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.