“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”
Mother Teresa, an angel who served her entire life to the deprived people. Her name is enough to let someone smile. Like her quote she actually spread love to everywhere she went. Those who got the opportunity to meet her personally, the person’s life has changed to see her once. Those who didn’t get the chance to meet her, Mother’s life story inspired them to take the right path in their life.
In 1979 she was honored with Nobel Peace Prize. Pope Francis beatified her as “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta”.
Tomorrow 4th September she officially will become a saint on the eve of her 19th death anniversary. Pope Francis at a Vatican ceremony will declare her Saint of the Catholic Church.
Before her official canonization just look at her works which made her living god
Her interest to work for the poor and her Calcutta coming
According to a biography written by Joan Graff Clucass, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was captivated by the stories of missionary life and their service in Bengal. In 1928 at the age of 18 she left her home and joined Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland to learn English as Sisters of Loreto used English to teach school children in India.
In 1929, she came to India and began her novitiate in Darjeeling where she learnt Bengali and taught at St. Teresa’s School. On 24th May, 1931 she took her first religious vows and was named Teresa.
She served as a teacher at the Loreto Convent School, Entally while she was disturbed by the poverty surrounded her in Calcutta. At that time in 1943 Bengal famine the city suffered from misery and death.
In 1946, she decided to “serve the poorest of the poor”. She left Loreto Convent to begin her missionary work with the poor in 1948. Sister Teresa adopted Indian citizenship and after taking medical training from Patna she ventured out for the slums. She first started a school in Motijhil and soon she started tending to the needs of the starving and poor.
She loved the work she did in the missionary as she learned there how to serve others. At that time she had no place to stay, no food and only she had 2 dollars with her. She began wearing inexpensive white sari trimmed in blue. Her clothing was similar to the dress of the India’s common people.
Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa
When she returned to Calcutta she was as poor as those she served. Once she said, “(I) found myself alone on the streets of Calcutta, I experienced a strong feeling of loss and almost of fear that was difficult to overcome.”
She begged for food to help the poor also she taught children how to care for themselves. She taught them in a unique way by writing in the dirt as they had no books and nothing to write with. As times passed more children gathered for her lessons. During this time people started calling her “Mother Teresa”. In that time she was given a single room to live in.
Missionaries of Charity
Mother Teresa established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 with 12 members. A former student of St. Mary’s was the first to join her. Later some other wealthy Hindu students of St. Mary joined Missionaries of Charity. They all lived in a small building which was donated to them. Now there are thousands of members all around the world who joined Missionaries of Charity.
Her journey to Sainthood
In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church someone can only be a saint if they have two officially verifiable miracles after her death.
Pope Francis recognized Mother Teresa’s second miracle last year in December that made her journey to sainthood.
A person can only become a saint after his/her death. The process can only begin at least five years of the candidate’s death.
In 1997, Mother Teresa died at the age of 87 and two years later her canonization process began. Exactly 19 years after her death she will officially be made a saint.
The process starts with the Bishop of the diocese who opened an investigation into the individual’s life. This investigation is needed to show they lived a life in holiness and virtue to be considered as a saint.
After gathering the enough evidence the Bishop then asks the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – the department that makes recommendations to the Pope for people to be made saints- for permission to open the case. After this is accepted then the person is known as a ‘Servant of God’.
The next step is the process to prove if the person led a life of ‘heroic virtue’. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints observes evidence of their holiness, works and signs that people have been to drawn to prayer.
If this is approved then the Pope decides the person lived a life of ‘heroic virtue’ and the person can be called the ‘venerable’.
The next stage is beatification. In this step a miracle needs to be attributed to prayers made to the individual after the person’s death. The miracle is seen as a proof that the person is in heaven as they are regarded as being able to speak with God on behalf of those making prayers.
The final step is canonization. When a second miracle has occurred then the process canonization takes place.
In 2003, Vatican acknowledged her first miracle where she cured a tumor suffering Calcutta woman after nuns prayed on her behalf.
The second medical miracle occurred in 2015 where she cured a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain abscesses. After that Pope Francis cleared the path for her canonization.
These are just a long process after her death but what she did in her lifetime for the people, for the poor she already has become a ‘Saint of Gutter’.
