Shillong, Aug. 27: Tura MP Conrad K. Sangma today recalled his meeting with Mother Teresa, as he prepares to attend the cannonisation of the "saint of the gutters" by Pope Francis.

Sangma is one of the parliamentarians chosen to be part of the Indian delegation to be led by Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to the Vatican for the canonisation of Mother Teresa next Sunday.

"Mother Teresa came home one day and I was the one who opened the door. She was there and I almost fainted. She came, sat and said that she had come to meet us and pray for us," Sangma, who was a student then, said, recalling the visit to their home in Delhi in the 1990s.

"She was so simple and humble and yet her presence was amazing and powerful," Sangma, the youngest son of late Purno Agitok Sangma, said from New Delhi.

The Indian delegation will comprise Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and parliamentarians K.V. Thomas, Jose K. Mani and Anto Anthony, Goa deputy chief minister Francis D'Souza, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India Most Rev. Theodore Mascarenhas and others.

A film festival will mark the canonisation of Mother Teresa where her life and teachings will be showcased across the world to spread the message of "peace, love and service to humanity". The Mother Teresa Film Festival will be held across 100 locations in India and in around 50 countries.

The festival, which began yesterday in Calcutta on Mother Teresa's birth anniversary, will culminate on February 25 next year. She had spent more than 45 years on the streets of Calcutta serving the poor and the sick and had founded the Missionaries of Charity.

The festival is being organised by the World Catholic Associations for Communications (India chapter).

In Shillong, the festival will be held from September 6 to 9 at the U Soso Tham auditorium, where nearly 20 films on the Catholic nun's life will be screened. The festival will also be held in Jowai, West Jaintia Hills, from September 14 to 17. Other places in India where the films will be showcased include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Udaipur, Guwahati, Patna, Indore, Ranchi and in four locations in Kerala.

The festival will also travel to countries like the UK, Malaysia, Ireland, Italy, Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China.