NEW DELHI, India (RNS) Indian officials have rejected a request by the Albanian government to return the remains of Mother Teresa to the country of her birth.

The Albanian request came from Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who had said on Saturday (Oct. 10) that his government had sought the return of Mother Teresa’s remains before the 100th anniversary of her birth next August. Berisha said Albania has started negotiations with the Indian government which “will be intensified this year.”

Mother Teresa, who died in Calcutta in 1997, was born in 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia. Her family was ethnic Albanian and devoutly Catholic. At the age of 19, she left her home and joined the Irish order of Loreto, where she was taught English. She was then sent to India, where she taught in missionary schools in Darjeeling and Calcutta from 1931 to 1948.

In 1950 she received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, the Missionaries of Charity, which has since grown to include 3,000 nuns and 400 brothers in 87 countries.

A spokesman of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs told the Mumbai newspaper DNA that “Mother Teresa is an Indian citizen.” The newspaper added that “the fact that she was an Indian citizen is a clear indication that for New Delhi the argument ends here.”

In Calcutta, where Mother Teresa is buried at the Missionaries of Charity motherhouse, officials at the order said they had not received any request for the transfer of Mother Teresa’s mortal remains to Albania.

“Unless we receive any specific request … we cannot comment,” said the Rev. Robin Gomes, who ministers to the nuns in Calcutta.

Gomes added that the Missionaries of Charity “would not probably agree to any request for transfer of her remains outside of her tomb” because “it will not be fair to remove her remains from there.”