Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint of the day for 5 September

(26 August 1910 - 5 September 1997)

History of Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified on October 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, her order. founded in 1950, as a religious diocesan community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative brothers and sisters and an order of priests.

Born to Albanian parents in present-day Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of three surviving children. For a time, the family lived comfortably and his father's construction business flourished. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic fellowship and showed a strong interest in foreign missions. At the age of 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when he said goodbye to his mother for the last time and headed for a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There he chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the rich. But she could not escape the realities around her: poverty, suffering, the overwhelming number of destitute people.

In 1946, while traveling by train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I had to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them “. He also felt a call to give up his life with the Loreto nuns and instead to "follow Christ in the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor".

After receiving permission to leave Loreto, found a new religious community and take up her new job, Sister Teresa attended a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals - the ordinary dress of an Indian woman - she soon began to get to know her neighbors - especially the poor and the sick - and their needs through visits.

The work was exhausting, but she wasn't alone for long. The volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies and the use of buildings. In 1952, the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and destitute. As the order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the elderly and street people.

For the next four decades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly for the poor. His love knew no bounds. Not even his energy, as he crossed the globe begging for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Blessed Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016.

Reflection
The beatification of Mother Teresa, just over six years after her death, was part of an accelerated process put in place by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others in the world, he found in his love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model to be emulated by all.