Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Diana, Princess of Wales, two of the most iconic figures of the late 20th century, are depicted together on a special postage stamp issued to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their deaths in 1997. The death of Mother Teresa in Calcutta on September 5, at the age of 87, was overshadowed by that of Princess Diana who was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris a week earlier on August 31, aged 36.

Mother Teresa, Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu, was born on August 27, 1910 in Skopje (now in Macedonia), of ethnic Albanian parents. Two decades before her beatification in 2003, the isolated People's Republic of Albania was the world's only declared atheistic state and anything to do with religion was systematically and brutally obliterated.

The 50p stamp was released on August 31 this year by Ascension Island, a United Kingdom Overseas Territory in the mid South Atlantic (a vital air base during the Falklands conflict). Produced in sheetlets of eight, the stamp depicts a photograph of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana taken when they first met in February 1992, at Mother Teresa's convent in Rome. Their final meeting took place in June 1997, when they met privately as Princess Diana left the Missionaries of Charity house in the Bronx.

The sheetlet, which also includes a picture of Princess Diana in the border, was co-ordinated by Pobjoy Mint Ltd, a coin specialist that now produces and distributes postage stamps on behalf of three postal administrations - Ascension Island, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Appropriately, the stamps were printed by BDT International Security Printing Ltd, based in Dublin, where in 1928, the young nun entered the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, and was given the name of Sister Mary Teresa.

Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pope, beatified his friend Mother Teresa of Calcutta on World Mission Sunday, October 19, 2003, three days after he had celebrated the 25th anniversary of his election as the first pope from a communist country. The estimated 300,000 pilgrims, who came from every corner of the globe, packed into St Peter's Square and beyond, almost to the end of the Via Della Conciliazione and the River Tiber itself. They clapped and cheered as the beautiful tapestry of Blessed Mother Teresa, hanging from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, was slowly unveiled. Mother Teresa is now just one step away from being declared a saint of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican Post Office issued a single 41c stamp on 23 September 2003 to mark the Beatification of Mother Teresa. It depicts a profile of Mother Teresa in prayer, wearing a blue-edged white sari, the dress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity the order she founded in Calcutta during 1950.

The stamps were printed in se-tenant sheetlets of five stamps and five labels by Cartor Security Printers in France. The border area of the left-hand pane is inscribed in Italian: "Beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta - 19 October 2003." The labels include short reflections by Mother Teresa, in Italian. The translation of the first, reads: "If you are humble, nothing will ever touch you. If you are holy, give thanks to God. If you are sinners, do not remain so."

Mother Teresa, known in India as the "Saint of the Gutter", was awarded the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. At the time Mother Teresa said that she would use the prize money for the benefit of the poorest of the poor in India and elsewhere. India marked the event with a special stamp on August 27, 1980, showing Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace Prize Medallion.

On October 4, 1982, Albania issued ten definitive stamps showing Mother Teresa holding a baby in her arms. This was followed by a further four stamps in July 1994 and a single stamp in 1995. Mother Teresa was also depicted on two stamps and a miniature sheet issued on 5 May 1996. Both Albania and Italy issued special stamps in September 1998 to commemorate the first anniversary of her death.

Stamps depicting the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Princess Diana are extremely popular with stamp collectors and non-collectors worldwide. They are a vivid reminder that both these remarkable women, who came from such diverse backgrounds, were an inspiration to countless millions of people, often the voiceless on the margins of society, who had no one to love or care for them. In their own ways, both Mother Teresa and Princess Diana embodied Christian love in action.

Blessed Mother Teresa, who established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, and later added branches for men, used to tell journalists who interviewed her: "There are many places in the world where people die of hunger. Many have died in my arms. We can give these poor people a plate of rice and we can clothe them and make a home for them, but it is very difficult to remove the hunger they have for love. The greatest joy for me is to see that a person dies in love knowing that God loves them."

Special Masses to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death have been celebrated in churches throughout the world. Bishop Philip Pargeter, an auxiliary bishop of Birmingham celebrated Mass, at noon on September 5, attended by some of her Missionaries of Charity, at Christ the King Church, in the Kingstanding district of Birmingham, where they live and work.