Mother Teresa was called a living saint. Today, 19 years after her death, she will hold the title officially. Two prominent Maltese priests recall with tenderness their encounters with her. Former Jesuit provincial Fr Paul Chetcuti spoke to Ronald Cassar.

The Indian city of Calcutta celebrated the canonisation of one of its own today, a diminutive Albanian nun who became a global symbol of compassion for her work with the sick and destitute.

However, the celebrations were not limited to Calcutta. The whole Catholic world rejoiced, for Mother Teresa’s tireless toiling for the poor spread well beyond India.

A testament to the Nobel Prize winner’s work is the 19 homes spread across the globe, all managed by the sisterhood she founded.

READ: Mother Teresa declared a saint

One of them is situated in Cospicua and opened in 1989. The Missionary Sisters of Charity, better known as the Sisters of Mother Teresa, are now well settled in the town and do sterling work in the community.

Mother Teresa visited Malta three times: in 1967, a short stop in 1971 and in 1976, when she addressed the Sixth World Congress of Lasallian Federations.

One man who worked closely with her is Jesuit priest Fr Paul Chetcuti. After meeting her in 1971, he went to Calcutta in 1977 and spent five months there as part of his Jesuit Tertianship programme, working in homes run by the Missionaries of Charity. While there, he was called regularly to give spiritual assistance to the sisters at Mother House.

“It was there that I first got on personal terms with Mother,” he recalls. “I became familiar with her spirit, her work and her as a person.”

Following that experience, he wrote down some reflections which were later published as an article. It caught the attention of Mother Teresa, who invited him over to run retreats for her sisters.

“This brought me in closer contact with her communities all over the world, and it was during such retreats that I had the occasion to meet Mother again several times and had the privilege of holding lengthy conversations with her.”

In 1983, Fr Chetcuti was invited to become the International Spiritual Adviser of the then Co-Worker Movement of Mother Teresa. In this capacity, he attended several meetings where she was present.

One day she really embarrassed me when, during one particularly intimate conversation, she asked me: ‘Father, teach me how to pray’

“I also witnessed the Mother’s exemplary attitude during sickness, while she was in hospital in Rome after she broke a rib in a fall. She must have been in pain but never did she say so or even show it.

“What was indeed striking was her jovial attitude towards the whole situation. She was obviously happy that some sisters and myself had come to visit her. She wanted to speak to me. She spoke about her work and the houses and how God was doing marvellous things with nothing.

“After some time, I felt awkward, because I did not want Mother to get tired talking. I made several attempts to stop the conversation, but she would continue talking as if she was in the best of health. She was only eager to get back to the sisters and to her work, in spite of what doctors were saying about her needing longer rest.”

A mere few days later, she was back in her community in Via Casilina, where Fr Chetcuti was running a retreat for her sisters.

She was acting as if nothing had happened and continued to meet everyone with that “serene disposition that was so characteristic of her”, he recalls.

Mother Teresa anchored herself in faith, he says – faith in God as a loving father.

“I once asked her what she experienced and how she felt during prayer. She looked up at me and simply said: ‘Nothing, Father! I feel nothing. But I know that He is there’.

“She was so thirsty for God and yet so humble about it that she would constantly seek help to get closer to Him. One day she really embarrassed me when, during one particularly intimate conversation, she asked me: ‘Father, teach me how to pray’.

“She believed with all her heart that all that was going on in her and through her was the work of God.”

“How God can do great things with nothing!” she would exclaim while describing the expansion of her work and the founding of new houses in various countries.

Mother Teresa saw the Eucharist as the focal point of her relationship with God and as a guide to all relationships. “Touch the poor as the priest touches the host during Mass,” she would tell her sisters.

“She once told me that one reason that churches were becoming more empty and that people were no longer so attracted to the Church was the fact that the Tabernacle was no longer placed on the main altar in many churches, but in a side chapel.

“For her, this was akin to marginalising the presence of the Eucharistic Jesus and therefore shifting the centrality of his presence from the life of the Church. This view may be seen as somewhat old fashioned theology, but it gives a clear indication of what the Eucharist meant to Mother.”

Many who encountered Mother Teresa witnessed her hopeful trust in God in the way she would speak about opening new foundations in difficult countries such as Russia, Albania and China. Undaunted by any difficulty, she was sure that God would open the doors of these countries so that her sisters could go there and spread God’s love to the poor.

The love of God was forcefully translated by Mother into love of one’s neighbour, Fr Chetcuti says. In her dealings with others, she was always tender, loving, kind and yet forceful, determined and practical.

She accepted everyone without distinction, and at the cost of great personal sacrifice, she was available to one and all unconditionally.

“Never have I met a person so ready to let the other dictate the terms of a relationship or of a service needed. She seemed to be at the mercy of those who needed her or asked for her, irrespective of time, energy or any other circumstance.

“Once I had the temerity to suggest that somebody should manage better her appointments, seeing how she was eaten up by those calling on her.

“Very pointedly she answered me: ‘If they ask for me, it is a sign that they need me.’ And yet her availability and readiness to serve were never patronising or even remotely possessive. It was indeed a free service given.”

The official canonisation is the confirmation by the Church of the saintly qualities of a person. It is a proposal that the shining light of a person’s holiness be followed by others.

After all, it was Mother Teresa who insisted that holiness is achievable, entailing a simple faith in the call of God’s love hidden in the humble actions of our daily lives.

The journey to sainthood

Mother Teresa is known as ‘the Saint of the Gutters’ for her work among the poor, dying and destitute in India and across the world.

Name: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa

Born: August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia

1928: Decides to become a missionary at the age of 18.

1929: Arrives in India. Begins her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains.

1931: Takes her first vows as a nun and chooses the name Teresa.

1946: Hears the “call within the call” to work for the poor.

1948: Begins missionary work with the poor in Calcutta.

1950: Receives Vatican permission to start her own order.

1951: Granted Indian citizenship.

1952: Opens her first home for the dying and destitute in Kalighat.

1962: Receives Indian and Philippine government awards for her work.

1975: Celebrates 25 years of Missionaries of Charity.

1979: Wins Nobel Peace Prize for humanitarian work.

1980: Given India’s highest civilian honour, the “Jewel of India”.

1983: Taken to hospital in Rome with a serious heart condition.

1990: Resigns as Superior General of Missionaries of Charity due to failing health but is re-elected.

March 13, 1997: Successor Sister Nirmala elected Superior General.

September 5, 1997: Dies in Mother House at the age of 87.

September 13, 1997: Mother Teresa is given a State funeral.

2003: Beatified by Pope John Paul II, an interim stage before being named a saint.

2015: Pope Francis recognises a second miracle, clearing the way for the Roman Catholic nun to be declared a saint within a year.

September 2016: Pope Francis declares Mother Teresa a saint. 

The five steps to canonisation

Step One: The process to sainthood normally cannot start until five years after death. This allows for emotions to calm following a death. However, the waiting process can be waived by the Pope. John Paul II dispensed with this period for Mother Teresa, beginning the process in 1999, less than two years after her death.

Step Two: Once the five years are up, or a waiver is granted, a bishop or religious group from the diocese where the person died can open an investigation into the life of the individual for public scrutiny. Evidence is gathered on the person’s life and deeds, including testimony from witnesses. When sufficient evidence has been gathered, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints makes the recommendation to the Pope for permission to open a case. When the case is accepted, the person is called a ‘Servant of God’.

Step Three: Once the Pope decides the person lived a life of virtue, the individual will be called ‘venerable’.

Step Four: A miracle needs to be attributed to prayers made to the person after their death. The intercession of the individual in the miracle needs to be verified for evidence before it is accepted as a miracle. Once this happens, a venerable figure will be upgraded for beatification. Following this, the candidate is given the title ‘blessed’.

One exception to the miracle requirement is a martyr, someone who died for their faith.

Step Five: Canonisation is the final step in declaring a deceased person a saint. To reach this stage, a second miracle needs to be confirmed. During the canonisation ceremony, the Pope conducts a special Mass, reading aloud the individual’s life story before declaring the person a saint.

Modern canonisation ceremonies attract Catholics from all over the world. Thousands of pilgrims are expected to attend today’s canonisation of Mother Teresa.