04 Sep. 16

On September 5, the Feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta will be held for the first time, canonized by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square.

We present 12 details that perhaps you did not know of the woman who with her service, in the poorest, showed the great mercy of God in the twentieth century.

1. Her name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu

It was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, present-day Macedonia, which was then part of Albania. She was baptized with the name of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.  Agnes, in Spanish is Inés and Gonxha means "bud of Rose or Little Flower".

 

2. Had a hard childhood

She made her first communion with five years and was confirmed at the six; at eight her father died, and her family went through a period of economic narrowness. She received a solid Christian formation at home and in the Jesuit Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

3. Took the name of Teresa by Saint Teresa of Lisieux

At the age of 18 he left her home to go to Ireland and entered the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Sisters of Loreto. She took the name of Teresa in honor of Saint Teresa of Lisieux, patroness of the missions and Doctor of the Church.

 

4. She was a teacher at a school in Calcutta

She arrived in Calcutta on January 6, 1929, Feast of the Epiphany or descent of kings to work as a teacher. On May 24, 1937, the Feast of Mary the Auxiliadora, she made her perpetual profession, becoming, as she said, "wife of Jesus" for "all eternity."

 

5. She left the sisters of Loreto to found the Missionaries of charity

She spent many years in the congregation of the Sisters of Loreto devoted to teaching. On September 10, 1946, on a trip to go to her annual retreat, she received what she called the "call-in-the-call" in which a thirst for love and souls seized her heart.

 

6. She had visions of Jesus

Through locutions and Visions, Jesus was showing her the new mission to which he called her. "Come and be My light," the Lord begged. Christ revealed his sorrow for the forgetfulness of the poor, his sorrow for the ignorance they had of him and the desire to be loved by them.

Mother Teresa left the convent of the Sisters of Loreto and dressed in the white sari fringed blue was introduced into the world of the neediest. She received a medical course with the missionary medical sisters and found temporary accommodation with the little ones of the poor.

 

7. Daily Mass and weekly confession

She began her day with the Eucharist and went out of the house with the rosary in her hand to serve the Lord in the poorest. Went to confession once a week. On October 7, 1950, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established.

 

8. Opened her first work outside India in Venezuela

In the Sixties, mother Teresa began sending her sisters to various parts of India and the first work that opened outside of that country was established in Venezuela. Then they expanded to other continents, even in communist countries such as the former Soviet Union and Cuba.

 

9. Founded several associations derived from the Missionaries of charity

Mother Teresa also founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity, the contemplative branch of the sisters, the contemplative brethren, the Missionary Fathers of Charity, the collaborators of Mother Teresa and the sick and suffering collaborators. She also started the Corpus Christi Priestly movement.

 

10. She had many years of "darkness"

In her inner life she experienced a deep, painful and constant feeling of separation from God, even from feeling rejected by him, coupled with a growing desire for his love. She called "darkness" to this inner experience that began more or less at the beginning of her service to the poor and continued until the end of her life.

 

11. Fast Track to Holiness

Mother Teresa and St. John Paul II were great friends and met on several occasions. The same Saint allowed the opening of Her cause of beatification before the five years after the death of the candidate, envisaged by the Church and the beatified on October 19, 2003, Day when the World Day of the missions was celebrated.

 

12. She had an "emergency ninth"

Given the large number of problems She faced frequently and in the midst of an accelerated pace of life, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta invented a way to invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary to which she named "Emergency ninth":

 

“Remember, Oh most gracious Virgin Mary, who has never been heard to say that none of those who have come to your protection, imploring your help and claiming your help, has been forsaken by you.

Encouraged by this trust, I go, oh mother, Virgin of the Virgins, and moaning under the weight of my sins I dare to appear before you.

oh Mother of God, do not dismiss my supplications before the need, rather, hear and take them benignly. Amen.”