Today Mother Teresa of Calcutta is Saint. Prayer to ask for his intercession

Jesus, you gave us in Mother Teresa an example of strong faith and ardent charity: you made her an extraordinary witness of the journey of spiritual childhood and a great and esteemed teacher of the value of the dignity of human life. May she be venerated and imitated as a saint canonized by the Mother Church. Listen to the requests of those who seek his intercession and, in a special way, the petition that we now implore ... (Mention the grace to ask).
Grant that we can follow his example by listening to your cry of thirst from the Cross and loving you tenderly in the disfigured appearance of the poorest of the poor, especially of those who are least loved and accepted.
This we ask in Your Name and through the intercession of Mary, Your Mother and our Mother.
Amen.
Teresa of Calcutta, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje in a wealthy family of Albanian parents, of Catholic religion.
At the age of eight he lost his father and his family suffered from severe financial difficulties. From the age of fourteen he participated in charity groups organized by his parish and in 1928, at eighteen, he decided to take the vows by entering as an aspirant in the Sisters of Charity.

Sent in 1929 to Ireland to carry out the first part of her novitiate, in 1931, after taking vows and taking the name of Maria Teresa, inspired by Saint Teresa of Lisieux, she left for India to complete her studies. He became a teacher at the Catholic college of St. Mary's High School in Entally, a suburb of Calcutta, frequented mainly by the daughters of the English colonists. In the years she spent at St. Mary she distinguished herself for her innate organizational skills, so much so that in 1944 she was appointed director.
The encounter with the dramatic poverty of the periphery of Calcutta pushes the young Teresa to a deep inner reflection: she had, as she wrote in her notes, "a call in the call".

In 1948 she was authorized by the Vatican to go live alone on the outskirts of the metropolis, provided that religious life continued. In 1950, he founded the congregation of the "Missionaries of Charity" (in Latin Congregatio Sororum Missionarium Caritatis, in English Missionaries of Charity or Sisters of Mother Teresa), whose mission was to take care of the "poorest of the poor" and "of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, untreated by society, all those people who have become a burden on society and who have shunned everyone. "
The first adherents were twelve girls, including some of his former students at St. Mary. He established as a uniform a simple blue and white striped sari, which, apparently, was chosen by Mother Teresa because it was the cheapest of those sold in a small shop. He moved to a small building which he called "Kalighat House for the dying", given to him by the Archdiocese of Calcutta.
The proximity to a Hindu temple provokes the harsh reaction of the latter who accuse Mother Teresa of proselytism and seek with massive demonstrations to remove her. The police, called by the missionary, perhaps intimidated by the violent protests, arbitrarily decides to arrest Mother Teresa. The commissioner, who entered the hospital, after seeing the care she lovingly gave to a mutilated child, decided to leave it alone. Over time, however, the relationship between Mother Teresa and the Indians strengthened and even if the misunderstandings remained, there was a peaceful coexistence.
Shortly afterwards he opened another hospice, the "Nirmal Hriday (ie Pure Heart)", then another house for lepers called "Shanti Nagar (ie City of Peace)" and finally an orphanage.
The Order soon began to attract both "recruits" and charitable donations from Western citizens, and from the XNUMXs it opened hospices, orphanages and homes for lepers throughout India.

The international fame of Mother Teresa grew enormously after a successful BBC service in 1969 entitled "Something beautiful for God" and created by the well-known journalist Malcolm Muggeridge. The service documented the work of the nuns among the poor of Calcutta but during the filming at the House for the Dying, due to the poor light conditions, it was believed that the film could have been damaged; however the piece, when it was inserted in the montage, appeared well lit. The technicians claimed that it was thanks to the new type of film used, but Muggeridge had convinced himself that it was a miracle: he thought that the divine light of Mother Teresa had illuminated the video, and converted to Catholicism.
The documentary, thanks also to the alleged miracle, had an extraordinary success that brought the figure of Mother Teresa into the limelight.

In February 1965, Blessed Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini, 1963-1978) granted the Missionaries of Charity the title of "congregation of pontifical right" and the possibility of expanding also outside India.
In 1967 a house was opened in Venezuela, followed by offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States throughout the seventies and eighties. The Order expanded with the birth of a contemplative branch and two lay organizations.
In 1979, he finally obtained the most prestigious recognition: the Nobel Peace Prize. He refused the conventional ceremonial banquet for the winners, and asked that the $ 6.000 of funds be allocated to the poor of Calcutta, who could have been fed for a whole year: "earthly rewards are important only if used to help the needy in the world" .
In 1981 the "Corpus Christi" movement was founded, open to secular priests. During the eighties the friendship between St. John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła, 1978-2005) and Mother Teresa were born and reciprocal visits. Thanks to the Pope's support, Mother Teresa managed to open three houses in Rome, including a canteen in the Vatican City dedicated to Santa Marta, patroness of hospitality.
In the nineties, the Missionaries of Charity exceeded four thousand units with fifty houses scattered on all continents.

Meanwhile, however, her condition worsened: in 1989, following a heart attack, a pacemaker was applied; in 1991 he fell ill with pneumonia; in 1992 he had new heart problems.
She resigned as superior of the Order but following a ballot she was practically unanimously re-elected, counting only a few abstained votes. He accepted the result and remained at the head of the congregation.
In April 1996 Mother Teresa fell and the collarbone broke. On March 13, 1997 he definitively left the leadership of the Missionaries of Charity. The same month he met San Giovanni Paolo II for the last time, before returning to Calcutta where he died on September 5, at 21.30 pm, at the age of eighty-seven.

Her work, carried out with immense love, among the victims of Calcutta's poverty, her works and her books on Christian spirituality and prayers, some of which were written together with her friend Frère Roger, made her one of the most famous in the world.

Just two years after his death, St. John Paul II had the beatification process open for the first time in the history of the Church, with a special exception, which ended in the summer of 2003 and was therefore beatified on October 19 with the name of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
The Archdiocese of Calcutta opened the process of canonization already in 2005.

Her message is always current: “You can find Calcutta all over the world - she said - if you have eyes to see. Wherever there are the unloved, the unwanted, the untreated, the rejected, the forgotten ”.
Her spiritual children continue to serve the "poorest of the poor" all over the world in orphanages, leper colony, shelters for the elderly, single mothers, and the dying. In all, there are 5000, including the two lesser-known male branches, distributed in about 600 houses around the world; not to mention the many thousands of volunteers and consecrated lay people who carry out his works. "When I am dead - she said -, I will be able to help you more ...".