Saint Teresa of Calcutta:

Feast day : 05 September

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, more popularly known as Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun and missionary who lived during the period 1910-1997. She lived the Christian virtues heroically, bringing the light of Christ to those who were in darkness. She is the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation to care for 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. She won several honors and awards during her lifetime for her exemplary service to humanity. She was canonized on 04 September 2016 and is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Calcutta and Missionaries of Charity.

Early life:

Saint Teresa was born into an Albanian family in Skopje on 26 August 1910 as the youngest child to her parents. She grew up hearing stories about missionaries who served in India especially Bengal and by the age of 12 she decided to commit herself to a religious life. At the age of 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto at Rathfarnham, Ireland and arrived in India in 1929. She began her novitiate in Darjeeling where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St. Teresa’s school near her convent. She took her first religious vows on 24 May 1931 and her final vows on 14 May 1937 taking the name Teresa. She served as a teacher for nearly twenty years till 1944. Although she enjoyed teaching at the school, she was greatly disturbed by the poverty that surrounded her. The Bengal famine of 1943 brought greater misery and death to the people around her.

Missionaries of Charity:

On 10 September 1946, whilst she was travelling by train to the Loreto Convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat, she experienced what she later described as “the call within the call”. She recognised her calling was to serve the poorest of the poor and serve them by being amongst them. In 1948, with due permission from her superiors she left her school and began her missionary work with the poor. She replaced her traditional Loreto habit with a simple while cotton sari with a blue border. After she received her basic medical training in Patna, she ventured into the slums of Calcutta to help the sick and dying. She was soon joined by like-minded young women which whom she founded a new religious community to serve the poorest of the poor.

In the initial days, they struggled to continue in their mission with no income and few medical supplies and facilities. She had her own share of spiritual battles too. She often had to fight against temptations to return back to the comfort of her life at Loreto which she overcame through prayer. She experienced the hardships of the poor and was one with them in their daily struggles. In her own words she described this phase of her life as “Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the Cross. Today, I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then, the comfort of Loreto came to tempt me. "You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again", the Tempter kept on saying. ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.”

Two years later she received due permission from Vatican for the diocesan congregation and formalised the community into the Missionaries of Charity. In her words, the mission of the congregation was to “care for 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".

In 1952 she opened her first hospice at Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday) for the Dying. It was a free home for the poor and dying. Those brought in were given medical aid and the opportunity to die with dignity fulfilling the religious rites of their faith. She described it as "A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted."

Later she opened another hospice for those with leprosy calling it Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). The congregation opened several leprosy clinics across Calcutta to serve the lepers. In 1955, a Nirmala Sishu Bhavan was opened to care for the homeless children on the streets of Calcutta. Soon her missions spread across India and several hospices, orphanages and leper homes were opened. The mission became popular and spread beyond the borders of India too. In 1965, a house was opened in Venezuela. Soon houses were opened in Rome, Tanzania and Austria in 1968 and later in several countries across Asia, Africa, Unites States and Europe.

In 1963, the Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded. Lay people who were keen to serve joined in the good work under the missions called as Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In 1981 she founded the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests and the Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984.

Honors and Awards:

She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962. The same year she also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding for her work in South & East Asia. This was followed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969. In 1971, Pope Paul VI gave her the inaugural Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her work with the poor, as a display of Christian charity and efforts for peace. She received the Pacem in Terris Award in 1976. In 1979, Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace". She also received the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna in 1980. Several governments and civilian organisations around the world lavished awards and honors on her. Universities in India and the West granted her honorary degrees too.

Criticisms and Spiritual sufferings:

Amidst all the awards and accolades, she had a fair share of sufferings too. She had a lot of critics who condemned her for her Catholic views against abortion and serving the poor. But her greatest trial was the spiritual darkness that she experienced throughout her life. She experienced a deep union with God during the early years of her vocational life. But after she began to work among the poor, she experienced an absence of God’s presence in her. This was an agonizing experience and made her doubt her calling several times. But with prayer and the guidance of her spiritual directors she gradually learnt that it was a sharing in the Passion of Christ, especially in the thirst that Jesus experienced during His Passion for the love and salvation of all humanity. She recognised this experience was an integral part of her vocation in serving the poor, unwanted and unloved people who had no one to care for them. She saw the sense of abandonment that Jesus felt during His Passion in the destitute people whom she took into her homes. Although this experience remained with her throughout her vocational life, she always radiated joy and love to people around her. In her words “If I ever become a Saint- I will surely be one of ‘darkness’. I will continually be absent from Heaven- to light the light of those in darkness on earth.” Saint Pope John Paul II once said "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, His Holy Face, His Sacred Heart."

Death & Sainthood:

In 1983, she suffered her first heart attack during her visit to Pope John Paul II. She had a second heart attack in 1989 and was given an artificial pacemaker. Her heart problems worsened after 1991 after she contracted pneumonia. From then on her health was on the decline and on 13 March 1997 she resigned as Head of the Missionaries of Charity and died on 05 September of that year. She was canonized on 04 September 2016 by Pope Francis.