Feast day: 5 September
Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, the Loreto sister who left her convent to serve 'the poorest of the poor' in the streets of Calcutta and founded a congregation now present in more than 130 countries.
- Born
- 26 August 1910, Skopje (then Ottoman Empire, today North Macedonia)
- Died
- 5 September 1997, Calcutta (India)
- Canonization
- Beatified 19 October 2003 by John Paul II; canonized 4 September 2016 by Pope Francis.
- Religious order
- Missionaries of Charity
- Country
- India (born in Skopje, of Albanian family)
Biography
Family and vocation
Born into a devout Albanian Catholic family, she lost her father when she was about eight; her mother Drana raised her in generous charity to the poor of Skopje. At eighteen she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, took the name Teresa after Thérèse of Lisieux, and was sent to teach at St Mary's School in Calcutta.
The call within a call
On 10 September 1946, travelling by train to Darjeeling, she received what she called an 'inspiration', a call within a call, to serve Christ in the poorest. In 1948 she left Loreto, took Indian citizenship, trained briefly as a nurse and began her work in the slums; the Missionaries of Charity were approved by the Archdiocese in 1950.
Darkness and worldwide expansion
She opened Nirmal Hriday, a home for the dying, houses for lepers and orphans, and spread the congregation across the world. Her letters, published after her death, revealed an interior darkness lasting nearly fifty years, lived in fidelity. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and accepted it 'in the name of the poor'.
Timeline
- 1910 — Born at Skopje
- 1928 — Enters the Sisters of Loreto
- 1946 — The 'call within a call' on the train to Darjeeling
- 1950 — Missionaries of Charity founded
- 1979 — Nobel Peace Prize
- 1997 — Dies in Calcutta
- 2016 — Canonized in Rome
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
White sari with blue border — The habit she chose, the dress of the poorest Indian women.
The words 'I thirst' — Written beside every chapel crucifix of her congregation.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Faith persevering in spiritual darkness, joy in service, humility and reverence for every human life. She taught that we are called not to be successful but faithful.
Importance in the Church
She placed the dignity of the dying and unwanted at the centre of the Church's witness in the twentieth century and became a universally recognised image of Christian charity.
Quotes
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Attributed teaching, widely cited in her collected words
“The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service.”
A Simple Path, 1995
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
Nobel Peace Prize context, 1979
Writings
Come Be My Light (2007) — Posthumous edition of her private letters revealing decades of interior darkness.
Constitutions of the Missionaries of Charity — Rule binding the sisters to free service of the poorest of the poor.
Prayers
Radiating Christ
Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours. Amen.
Prayer of Saint John Henry Newman, recited daily by the Missionaries of Charity after Communion.
Places
Motherhouse, Calcutta — Her tomb and the centre of the Missionaries of Charity.
Nirmal Hriday, Kalighat — The first home for the dying, opened in 1952.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)