Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Virgin
- Feast Day
- September 5
- Life
- 1910–1997
- Canonized
- 2016
- Order
- Missionaries of Charity
- Born
- Skopje (then Ottoman Empire, now North Macedonia)
Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, of Albanian Catholic parents. At eighteen she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, taking the name Mary Teresa, and was sent to India in 1929. After teaching at Saint Mary's School in Calcutta, on 10 September 1946, while traveling by train to Darjeeling for a retreat, she received what she called her call within a call: to leave the convent and serve Christ in the poorest of the poor.
With permission of the Holy See she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta on 7 October 1950. She and her sisters opened homes for the dying (Nirmal Hriday), for orphans, lepers and AIDS patients, and the congregation expanded to more than 130 countries. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, donating the prize money to the poor.
Her private letters, published posthumously, revealed a prolonged interior darkness in which she experienced the absence of the felt consolation of God while continuing in fidelity. She died in Calcutta on 5 September 1997. Pope Saint John Paul II beatified her on 19 October 2003 and Pope Francis canonized her on 4 September 2016 in Saint Peter's Square. Her optional memorial was inserted into the General Roman Calendar by decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship dated 6 September 2016.
In his canonization homily, Pope Francis called Mother Teresa a generous dispenser of divine mercy and said her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God's closeness to the poorest of the poor. Her spirituality, centered on Jesus' words on the Cross I thirst, identified Christ with the suffering and unwanted of every age.
Patronages
World Youth Day · Missionaries of Charity
From Saint Teresa of Calcutta
"Perhaps I don't speak their language, but I can smile."
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Teresa of Calcutta
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Teresa of Calcutta's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- Santa Teresa de Jesús
- Pfarre Heilige Mutter Teresa
- St Teresa's Church - Garbutt — Townsville, QLD
- St Teresa of Lisieux Catholic Church — Riccarton
- Our Lady of Grace and St Teresa of Avila — Chingford, LONDON
- SS Luke & Teresa — Wincanton, ENG
- SS Joseph & Teresa — Wells, ENG
- St Teresa of the Child Jesus and SS John Fisher and Thomas More — Beaconsfield, ENG
- Santa Teresa de Calcutta Parish — Masbate City, MASBATE
- Santa Teresa
- Sacred Heart Church (St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish) — Norton, NB
- St Teresa's Catholic Church — Newarthill, SCT
- Sta. Teresa de Avila Parish — Malalag, DAVAO DEL SUR
- Igreja de Santa Teresa do Menino Jesus
- Parish of Sta. Teresa De Avila — Anini-y, ANTIQUE
- St. Teresa’s Chapel — BC
- St. Teresa of Avila Parish — Roxas City, CAPIZ
- Paróquia Santa Teresa — Aeroporto, SE
- Santa Teresa de l'Infant Jesús
- St. Teresa's Parish — St. John's, NL
Sources