Saint of Today: Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Mother Teresa was born in August 1910 to Albanian parents. At the age of 18 years she joined the Sisters of Loreto Abbey in Dublin. Her original name was Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She chose the name Teresa when she was at Darjeeling, India. She left the Loreto convent to serve the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. In 1952 she started a home for the dying and the destitute. She established a religious community called the Missionaries of Charity. Apart from giving food and shelter, she gave dignity to the poor and suffering. She did service for more than four decades and she was an icon of the Good Samaritan. She was awarded the Nobel Price for peace in the year 1979. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. Mother Teresa died exactly after 100 years of the death of St. Teresa of Lisiex and also in the same month of September (St. Teresa of Lisiex died on September 30, 1897). She was respected as the Saint of the Gutters even during her life time. One Monica Besra, a tribal lady aged 36 years was cured from abdominal cancer by the intercession of Mother Teresa, in the year 1998. On the basis of this first miracle, Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul-II on October 19, 2003.