Second anniversary of Mother
Teresa’s sainthood
Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta a saint at a
canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square on September 4, 2016.
By Robin Gomes
Admirers, devotees and beneficiaries of Mother Teresa of
Calcutta around the world are recalling the saint, her life and her works on
Tuesday, the second anniversary of her canonization by Pope Francis in
Rome. The Pope officially declared her St. Teresa of Calcutta on
September 4, 2016.
The Pope had made Mother Teresa one of the major reference
points of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that he declared from 8 December
2015 to 20 November 2016. The day of her canonization, September 4, was
designated as the Jubilee for Workers of Mercy and Volunteers.
After officially declaring Mother Teresa a saint at the
canonization Mass, the Pope delivered a homily focusing where he focused on her
works of mercy.
Speaking in Italian, the Pope said that “her mission to
the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an
eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor.” “
Today,” he said, “I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of
consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model
of holiness!.... The Holy Father wished the tireless worker of mercy
help us increasingly to understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous
love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to
everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion.
Albania to India
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents
on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, in what is Macedonia today,
Mother Teresa came to eastern India’s Kolkata city, formerly
Calcutta, in 1929, as a missionary sister of Loreto.
Later, in what she described as a call within a call, she founded
her Missionaries of Charity congregation in 1950.
Mother Teresa, who became an Indian citizen, earned 124
national as well as international honours for her works of mercy, including
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died on September
5, 1997 at the age of 87 and St. John Paul II declared her Blessed in
the Vatican, on October 19, 2003.
Inspiration
The feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta is
marked on September 5, the day she died 19 years ago. Mother
Teresa has many words of wisdom that people even today draw inspiration
from. One such gem is “the Gospel in your hand”.
According to Mother Teresa, we have the words of Jesus in
the 5 fingers of our hand - “You did it to me”, which, she said, sum up
the entire Gospel.
UN’s recognition
In honour of Mother Teresa, the United Nations General
Assembly adopted a resolution on 17 December 2012, to designate 5
September, the day of her passing away, as the International Day of
Charity to focus on the role of charity and charitable organizations
and individuals in alleviating human suffering.
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