Whom do you think Americans identified as the most admired person of the 20th century?

In a December 1999 Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll, everyday Americans were asked to name the person they most admired. Guess who won? Was it Martin Luther King, Jr.? John F. Kennedy? Albert Einstein?

No, those giants of history ranked second, third and fourth, respectively.

Winston Churchill? Mohandas Gandhi? Nelson Mandela?

No, they didn’t even make the top ten.

Well then, who won?

The person Americans most admired last century: Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

This weekend, grab your student ID and come to the Carey Center and listen to the people who personally knew Mother Teresa best as they tell their stories. The cast we have assembled at Saint Vincent is without equal, and that is why portions of the conference will be carried on live worldwide television – EWTN – channel 8 on your campus cable. EWTN will broadcast at 11am and 7pm on Saturday, and re-broadcast at 2 am (for those of you getting to your room after a hard night of…studying).

Here’s who is coming to Saint Vincent:

• Emmy Award winning filmmaker Jan Petrie who traveled the world with Mother Teresa for a documentary that she will show Friday night. If you haven’t seen this movie, here’s your chance to not only see her movie but hear the commentary of the co-producer, a woman who spent more time with Mother Teresa than any other American. Jan also will participate on a Saturday night panel telling stories of her travels to Russia, Albania, and elsewhere with Mother.

• Mother Teresa’s only living relative, Agi Bojaxhiu, the daughter of Mother’s only brother, Lazar. Agi is fun and funny, lives in Italy, and will talk about what it was like having a saint for an aunt. She will join Jan and others for a Saturday Night Live at Saint Vincent production beamed by satellite around the world. I know NBC Saturday Night Live had Labron James as its host last weekend, but for our 7pm broadcast this Saturday night, we have a starting line-up that would make Labron shiver in his sneakers. Sandy McMurtrie, who traveled with Mother Teresa to Cuba when she met with Castro, and Dr. Patricia Aubanel, the cardiologist who cared for Mother and went with her to Rome and was present when she said goodbye to Pope John Paul II for the final time, also will be on the panel. Colleen Carroll Campbell, a television host, columnist and author, will moderate the discussion.

• Sister Nirmala, the woman who replaced Mother Teresa. Talk about having big sandals to fill! She entered the Missionaries of Charity almost fifty years ago, and for the last ten has been the head of this worldwide missionary order in over 125 countries with over 700 mission houses. She has come all the way from Calcutta to be with us. She and a good number of her Sisters will attend the Masses on Friday at 5pm and Saturday at 9:30am (both are in the Basilica) and you don’t need your ID to get in for that. However, for her talk Saturday morning in the Carey Center at 11 AM, you will need to have registered to guarantee a seat (otherwise, show up with your ID and see if there’s any room). If you can’t get in, don’t worry - you can go to your room and switch on EWTN.

• Ever meet a New York Times Best Selling author – especially one currently on that list? Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, whose new book, Come be My Light, was featured last month on the cover of Time magazine, will address attendees, and a worldwide audience, when he follows Sister Nirmala to the podium.

In addition to these close friends of Mother Teresa, and her niece from Italy, there will be other individuals throughout the day telling their stories. The first session after the Mass Friday night features celebrated photographer Michael Collopy who did an exquisite photo journal of Mother Teresa. Come to my office and look at it. Even if you couldn't care less about Mother Teresa, as a student of life and the arts, you might enjoy asking questions about what it was like to have Mother Teresa as your subject for photography or film.

Go to the Saint Vincent web site for more details on the conference (click on Mother Teresa’s photo) and you’ll see the whole schedule. I want to thank the dozens of students who already have signed up to volunteer. This will be a college memory that will last for a lifetime.

As I prepared for this extraordinary conference, I looked at the list of individuals whom the Gallup poll identified as admirable, those I mentioned above and people like Helen Keller, Pope John Paul II. Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and so forth. A couple of common traits emerged. They all were dreamers and thinkers and lovers. They held nothing back in life. They thought of others and put the interests of others before their own. Virtually all were people of deep faith. Not one of them sought celebrity or acclaim, and many suffered it. Only a couple died rich, and some died virtually penniless. All found their life’s works magnified with the passage of time, rather than diminished. All took the road less traveled.

At the top of the heap was the most improbable of them all – an obscure Albanian woman with only a high school diploma who ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize and the admiration of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others throughout the world.

Come to the Carey Center this weekend and listen to people who knew her, and discover for yourself why. Your presence would not only be greatly appreciated, but, well, admirable. Chancellor Archabbot Douglas, our guests from all over the world and I hope to see you there.