The Catholic Church Saturday celebrates the feast day of the renowned Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The Albanian nun who was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, the youngest of three children, initially joined the religious congregation of the Sisters of Loreto at a very young age of 17.

After her profession of vows, she was sent on a mission to assist the poor and the disadvantaged in Calcutta, India, where she also taught at a high school for a few years. Due to her immersion in urban poor communities, she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to recuperate and rest in Darjeeling. On her way to Darjeeling, she believed that she heard God’s voice calling her to minister to and devote her life to the poor. She was certain that God was calling her to a specific ministry but she did not know what to do at that particular moment.

“I knew where I belonged, but I did not know how to get there,’’ she wrote. The signs became clear only when she received advice from the Holy See through the Archbishop of Calcutta granting her permission to leave the Sisters of Loreto and form a group of nuns who would serve the needs of the poor, the sick, and the marginalized. She started living in the slums, unmindful of what other people may say about her and her condition, and took care of the needy. Later, she was joined by her former students and other kind-hearted young women who shared the same compassion for the poor.

Although at first, it was not easy for them to be accepted both in the church and in society, in 1950, they were recognized by the local Church of Calcutta and in 1952, the government donated a property to them for their social services. Years later, she gained recognition from government and private agencies the world over. People acclaimed her as “the living saint’’ because of her selfless
dedication to the work for the poor. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1980, she was given India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, for her humanitarian work in the country. But years prior to these awards, she received in 1962 the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding.

The saintly nun passed away on September 5, 1997, and was beatified only six years later, on October 19, 2003. The records of her cause for sainthood show that several prayers of the people were granted through her intercession. We need modern Mother Teresas today. We need people who will be faithful to the example of Jesus Himself who stood up for the needy, the neglected, and the less privileged.

We pray to Blessed Mother Teresa that she may touch our hearts and lead us to love Jesus in the many faces of the poor today.