September 5: Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta—Memorial

1910–1997
Patron Saint of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity
Canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016

Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje, present-day North Macedonia, the youngest of three surviving children. Her devout Catholic parents called her Gonxhe, meaning “rosebud” or “little flower” in Albanian. When Gonxhe was eight, her father died, and her family suffered financially. Feeling called to serve the poor, at eighteen, she traveled to Ireland to join the Loreto nuns. After learning English, the young novice moved to the Loreto House in Darjeeling, India in 1929. In 1931, she made her first profession of vows, taking the name Teresa, after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She then taught at a girls’ school in Calcutta. Making final vows in 1937, she became “Mother Teresa.” 

On September 10, 1946, Mother Teresa was traveling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling for an annual retreat and time of rest. During the trip, she heard Jesus’ “call within a call,” to quench His thirst by following Him into the slums to serve the poorest of the poor. She observed September 10 as “Inspiration Day,” the day she believed God founded the future Missionaries of Charity. 

Jesus’ thirst on the Cross was the purpose of Mother Teresa’s life and the reason God called her to found the Missionaries of Charity. With no end to the depth of Jesus’ thirst, there was no end to the depth of love she was called to give to Him by loving the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa would quench Christ’s thirst in those she served and encounter Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.

For eighteen months, Mother Teresa heard the “Voice” speak to her, calling her to trust, surrender, and love while her spiritual director and the archbishop tested her. Finally, with the permission of the Loreto Superior and the Holy See, Mother Teresa began her new mission on August 17, 1948.

After completing medical training, Mother Teresa began her life as a Missionary of Charity in the Calcutta slums where countless were homeless, poor, and uneducated. She dressed their wounds, showed compassion for the suffering, listened to their stories, and gave them food, treating them as if they were Jesus. This was a novel approach in India where poverty was viewed as a result of bad karma. In March 1949, one of her former students joined her in the work. A year later, she had twelve companions. Receiving formal papal approval on October 7, 1950, the Missionaries of Charity made the usual three vows and a fourth vow to care for the poor and needy. 

Over the next decades, the order spread from India, growing to 4,000 members in 123 countries. In 1976, Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, which she accepted “in the name of the hungry, of the naked, of the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the leprous, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared, thrown away of the society, people who have become a burden to the society, and are ashamed by everybody.” After that, kings, dictators, presidents, prime ministers, and religious leaders sought her counsel, and she enjoyed an open door from the pope any time she was in Rome. While her international influence was considerable, she remained humble and devoted to her mission of love. Two years after her death, Pope John Paul II opened her cause for canonization. He beatified her in 2003, and she was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016.

Let us pray: Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, you experienced Christ’s thirst within the depths of your being. Driven to charity, you searched endlessly to bring satiation to our Lord in the distressing disguise of the poor and suffering. Please pray that I will be freed of every selfish motivation in life so that I can give myself to others, freely and wholeheartedly, as an instrument of the Most Merciful Heart of Jesus. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.