About St. Teresa of Calcutta

This week we will celebrate the Feast Day of one of the most beloved saints of the 20th century, St. Teresa of Calcutta, known as Mother Teresa for most of her life. I don’t have an official source to site for this, but I remember her being referred to as the only “living saint.” By the way she lived her life, she was an inspiration to all of us.

Early Life

She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia to Albanian parents. Agnes was the youngest of three children in the family. Her father was a successful businessman but died when Agnes was just 8 years old. To support the family, her mother opened an embroidery and cloth business. The family was devoutly religious.

While attending a public school, Agnes was active in a Catholic student organization, and she was particularly interested in  the foreign missions. At age 17, she said what would end up being her final goodbye to her mother as she left for the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnam, Ireland, on October 12, 1928. This is where she took the name, Teresa, in honor of her patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux.

A few months later, in January, 1929, the Loreto order sent Teresa to Calcutta, India, where she joined the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling. She made her final profession as a Loreto nun on May 24, 1937, and was now called Mother Teresa. In those first years as a nun, she taught history and geography in a girls’ school. While there, she witnessed the Bengali Famine in 1943 and the Hindu-Muslim Riots of 1946. These events drove Mother Teresa to look for ways to alleviate the sufferings of the people around her.

A Greater Calling

On September 10, 1946, on a train ride to Darjeeling for a retreat, Mother Teresa had an experience with God that changed her life, and by my estimation, changed the world. here is a quote of her description of the message she received: “A call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” and she was to give up living with the Sisters of Loreto to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.” (found here, para 4)

After getting permission to establish a new order, she got some medical training and then headed back to Calcutta. While there, she began wearing the white sari with blue stripes that we are so used to seeing on her. Mother Teresa lived in the slums, as the Lord directed, and opened a school for poor children. She took advantage of this opportunity to get to know her neighbors, especially the poor and the sick, and got to know their needs. She even applied for Indian citizenship.

Initially, she and the nuns with her went door to door begging for food and assistance. Then they lived very simply so they could share the rest with the poor around them. Eventually, people began to know of her efforts, and they began to send food and support for her mission.

The Missionaries of Charity

This is how she formed the Missionaries of Charity family of Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, and Co-Workers, which was the name for lay people devoted to the works of the congregation. This new congregation was officially recognized by the Vatican on October 7, 1950, in Calcutta. During the 1950s and 60s the congregation expanded throughout India, and then into Venezuela in 1965 and Europe and Africa in 1968. From the late 1960s to 1980 the Missionaries of Charity opened houses in Australia, the Middle East, and North America.

By 1979 there were 158 Missionaries of Charity foundations, and Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize, although she refused the formal celebratory banquets, asking that the money be donated to the poor, instead.  By 1980 they even reached Communist countries like Sagreb, Croatia, and even East Berlin. They continued to expand to almost every Communist country through the 1980s and 90s, but she could never get into China.

In October, 1985, she spoke to the United Nations General Assembly, and on Christmas Eve of that year she opened her first house for AIDS patients in New York. Since then she has opened other facilities for AIDS patients around the world.

The focus of the Missionaries of Charity is “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” (cited here, para 9) In 1952 they opened Nirmal Hriday (roughly translated: The Home of the Pure Heart), which was a hospice dedicated to providing dignity before death, and Shanti Hagar, a home for those with leprosy. In 1955 they opened the Nrimal Shishu Bhavan (Children’s Home of the Immaculate Heart), an orphanage.

The Spirit of Mother Teresa

She received numerous recognition and awards, but she preferred to credit them “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.” (source here, para 8) Overwhelmingly, her desire was “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.” (same source, para 1)

By 1997, there were nearly 4,000 Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, with almost 600 foundations in 123 countries. Although her health was failing, she continued to travel and spread her message of service. She returned to Calcutta in July, 1997, and she died at 9:30am on September 5, 1997. There was a state funeral, including a procession through the streets of Calcutta, wth her body being carried by a gun carriage that was also used for Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharial Nehru. Presidents, Royalty, and heads of state from around the world attended her funeral.

Mother Teresa once said, “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” (cited here, para 1)

Sainthood

Pope John Paul II waived the usual 5-year waiting period from a person’s death to be eligible for consideration of sainthood. Instead, he initiated the process around the turn of the millennium. Thus he officially beatified her October, 19, 2003. According to the Franciscan Media website, “Mother Teresa’s beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited process put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer, and for the poor a model for all to emulate. ” (found here, para 8) Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016.

Please join me this week as we explore some of the many lessons we can learn from St. Teresa of Calcutta. We will discuss her patronage, her congregation, her strength, her private inner struggles, and her care for the sick, the dying, and the poor.