Teresa of Calcutta

Authorized to leave the Sisters of Loreto, Mother Teresa donned the white sari bordered with blue on August 17, 1948, which would become the habit of her future community, and in December, she went to the slums of Calcutta. On October 7, 1950, the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially erected in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Its members pronounce, in addition to the traditional vows, a fourth vow of free and wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor. The work diversified rapidly: a home for the dying (Nirmal Hriday), homes for lepers, orphanages, and dispensaries. The congregation expanded outside of India starting in the 1960s and was completed by several branches: the Missionary Brothers of Charity (1963), a contemplative branch of sisters (1976), the contemplative Brothers (1979), and the Missionary Fathers of Charity (1984), as well as lay collaborators. Internationally recognized, Mother Teresa received the Indian Padmashri award (1962), then the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, the reward for which she dedicated to her work. At the time of her death, her congregation counted hundreds of houses spread across numerous countries.

Mother Teresa's spirituality rested on the contemplation of Christ present in the poorest, according to the Gospel word 'whatever you did for one of these least of these, you did for me'. She closely linked Eucharistic adoration and service to the destitute, requiring of her sisters a life of prayer, poverty, and total availability. Her reputation for holiness had spread widely during her lifetime, in India as well as throughout the world, to the point that she was often presented as a figure of Christian charity. After her death, the publication of her spiritual correspondence, notably in the work 'Come Be My Light', revealed that she had traversed for decades a long interior trial of aridity and a feeling of the absence of God, which she lived in union with the abandonment of Christ. Far from weakening her cause, this testimony of a persevering faith in darkness was interpreted as a sign of her spiritual depth.

The cause for Mother Teresa's beatification was opened in Calcutta less than two years after her death, with an exceptional dispensation from the usual five-year waiting period granted by John Paul II. On December 20, 2002, the Pope approved the decrees recognizing her heroic virtues and a first miracle, the unexplained healing of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, who was suffering from an abdominal tumor. Mother Teresa was beatified by John Paul II on October 19, 2003, in St. Peter's Square. A second miracle, the 2008 healing of a Brazilian man, Marcilio Haddad Andrino, who was suffering from multiple brain abscesses, was recognized by Pope Francis in December 2015. She was canonized by Francis on September 4, 2016, in Rome, the eve of the anniversary of her death, during a celebration that presented her as a "generous dispenser of divine mercy." Her liturgical memorial was initially proper to certain places and institutes, before being inscribed in the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial on September 5, by decree of the Dicastery for Divine Worship on February 11, 2025.

At her death, Mother Teresa had become a world-renowned figure of commitment to the poor, the sick, and the dying, to the point that the Indian government granted her a state funeral. Her most tangible legacy is the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, which continues her work in hundreds of houses spread across every continent, serving the most destitute, lepers, orphans, and those at the end of life. Her spirituality of the "little way" of charity, attentive to every person encountered, continues to inspire believers and non-believers alike, and she is frequently cited as a reference for Christian humanitarian action. Several parishes, schools, and institutions bear her name, and her tomb, at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, is a place of pilgrimage. Her example has also nourished contemporary reflection on the articulation between prayer, service, and perseverance in the trial of faith.