September 5
Saints of the Day
 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, (1910-1997), Mother Teresa; Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
The Saint of the Gutters, of the poorest of the poor, founder of the Missionaries of Charity working in 30 countries. She is my personal friend!, and a friend of John Paul II, friend of everybody, most specially of any poor!

    Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, and with so many wanting to help she founded  the Missionaries of Charity. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an order of priests working in 30 countries.

    “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."  

    On December 21, 1948 Mother Teresa went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students. 

    On 7 October 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

    She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1972, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and the Missionaries today work in 30 countries and usually in the worst slums of ther cities.

    I consider her my friend. I was with her many times, she was in Medical Office in New York, and then When I went ti Calcutta I was with her several times.
    She was very humble but very bold. I dedicated to her a booklet on "Hinduism and Christianity" and I brought her some copies. Immediately got into the phone, saying, look Doctor I can't leave home because I have this pace-maker, but I am to call the Archbishop to meet with you and may be he can use the booklet... I have published 103 books and booklets and I never even thought on bringing one of them to my Bishop!
    But she asked,  "why did you write it?", "because I want to convert all the Hindus", I answered. She looked well over the booklet and said, "Look Doctor, if every Catholic would be a good Christian every Hindu would become a Catholic"

Mother Teresa with me and my son Francis in Calcutta

Born 26 August 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia

Died 5 September 1997 in Calcutta, India of natural causes

Beatified 19 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II

Canonized

pending; if you have information that might be of interest to Mother Teresa's Cause, contact
Vice Postulator
Father Brian MC
Headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity
Mother House
54/A Lower Circular Road
Calcutta-16
West Bengal, India

Additional Information

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintt1v.htm
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1907
Beatification of mother Teresa Art Gallery

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Readings Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa