On Sunday, 4th of September, Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint, honoring the diminutive missionary for having taken in society’s most abandoned, “the poorest of the poor”.
At a Canonization Mass attended by an estimated 120,000 people at The Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square, Francis held her up as the model for a Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls. In his homily, Francis praised Mother Teresa as the merciful saint who defended the lives of the unborn, sick and abandoned. “She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity,” he said.
“Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer,” Francis said.
The canonization was the highlight of the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Francis dedicated to ministering to society’s most marginalised, especially the refugees, the sick, the poor and the elderly. For Francis, Mother Teresa had in her life translated into action the ideal of the church as a merciful “field hospital” tending to those suffering both material and spiritual poverty.
The sainted Teresa enjoyed the admiration and respect of Christians and non-Christians all over the world for her commitment to corporal and spiritual acts of mercy, doing what many considered extremely difficult for ordinary mortals to accomplish
Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on 26 August 1910 in Skopje now capital of the Republic of Macedonia (formerly part of the Kosovo Vilayet in the Ottoman Empire). She left Macedonia at age 18, moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life, working in the slums of Calcutta.
In 1950, Teresa founded the religious congregation known as Missionaries of Charity, putting up homes for the sick and the dying, soup kitchens, dispensaries and mobile clinics, children’s and family counselling programmes, orphanages, and schools.
Mother Teresa was recipient of numerous honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She died on 5th September 1997.
She is to be known as Saint Teresa of Kolkota and her feast day will be celebrated every year on the 5th of September.
Condensed from various articles online.
