Pope Francis has announced that Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church this year. This good news has been received with joy by many of her admirers both in the Church and outside.
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje on August 26, 1910, the youngest child of a well-off family. She was baptised Gonxha Agnes and received her First Holy Communion six years later. From that day onwards she felt a strong urge to be useful to others. Two years later her father, who was involved in Albanian politics, died and the family was reduced to strained circumstances. At this stage the greatest influence in her life was still her mother, Drane, who gave her a spiritual legacy that was to sustain her all her life.
Agnes, though still very young, was impressed by the work of missionaries and felt an almost unbearable desire to follow their footsteps as soon as she would gain the status of an independent adult woman.
Such was her determination that at the age of 18 Agnes informed her mother that she would be joining the Sisters of Loreto at the Institute of the Blessed Mary in Ireland with the aim of eventually becoming a missionary. In 1928 she was received within the congregation and adopted the name of Sister Maria Teresa. On January 6, 1929, she arrived in Calcutta and made her profession two years later. On May 27, 1937, she took her final vows and became known as Mother Teresa.
In 1946, while on a train trip from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, she received what she later called “a call within a call”. She called it an order from Christ. In the weeks and months that followed she experienced further spiritual visions revealing to her Christ’s pain at the neglect of the poor and their ignorance of Him.
“Come be my light,” he exhorted her.
On August 17, 1948, she adopted the white dress bordered by a blue ribbon in the form of an Indian sari that was to be the symbolic attire of the Missionaries of Charity that she was to found two years later in Calcutta.
The Sisters who formed the congregation visited the slums of Calcutta and nursed or cared for the sick that abounded in the sprawling poverty-ridden city. As the fame of the Sisters spread new houses were opened in various parts of India with the full blessing of the government, and later in other parts of the world. The small seed planted in Calcutta was growing and gaining world attention.
By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world
Male members were later added to the missionary movement by the creation by Mother Teresa of the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, the Contemplative Brothers in 1979 and the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1984.
Lay brothers or helpers, of different denominations or inspirations with a genuine desire to help others in need, were later included in the movement as the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers.
In 1962 the Indian government in recognition of her splendid work with the poor of the country awarded her the prestigious Indian Padma Shri Award and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. From then on India considered Mother Teresa as one of her own. She was awarded the Noble Prize 17 years later and received other international awards.
Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1979, from a long-standing heart condition. She was given a state funeral by the government of India.
Her missionary movement is now spread worldwide with more than 4,000 members in 123 countries. In 2003 Pope Paul John II approved the beatification of Mother Teresa and in December 2015 Pope Francis announced that she would be raised to sainthood this year.
Mother Teresa is also a controversial figure. Christopher Hitchens, for example, a noted religious critic and author, called Mother Teresa’s position on Church reform as “ultra-reactionary and fundamentalist”. Hitchens particularly criticised her stand on abortion following her comment on receiving the Noble Prize that “abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace today” and for glorifying poverty by stating that suffering was a gift from God.
“More will be poor and sick if her example is followed,” he concluded.
On the other hand, Malcolm Muggeridge, renowned journalist and author, made a spiritual journey through the encounter he had with her while filming a 1969 documentary for television on her life and activities. He pointedly called the documentary Something Beautiful for God. This documentary brought Mother Teresa to world attention. Eventually, the experience was so strong on Muggeridge that he converted to Catholicism and dedicated the rest of his life to her cause.
Mother Teresa is the gift of God to us living in this modern world – a world obsessed with mundane fleeting things. She explained herself thus: “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.”