St. Teresa of Calcutta

St. Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997) — born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje (now North Macedonia) — is the Albanian-Indian nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and devoted her life to serving "the poorest of the poor" in Calcutta, India. She is one of the most recognizable Catholics of the 20th century and was canonized in 2016 (CCC 2449).

Her Call

Teresa joined the Loreto Sisters and taught in Calcutta until 1946, when she received what she called "a call within a call" — a divine inspiration during a train journey to Darjeeling, in which she heard Christ asking her to serve him in the distressing disguise of the poor. After years of discernment and Church approval, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 (CCC 2449).

Her Work

The Missionaries of Charity established homes for the dying destitute, orphanages, schools, and leprosy clinics throughout Calcutta and eventually worldwide. Teresa's conviction was that every dying person deserved to die with dignity, loved and cared for — that in serving them she was serving Christ himself (Matthew 25:40; CCC 2449).

The Dark Night

Letters published posthumously revealed that Teresa suffered an interior "dark night" — a prolonged sense of God's absence — for most of her active ministry. Far from undermining her witness, many saw this as deepening it: she served Christ with joy despite feeling nothing, modelling faith that does not depend on consolation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Mother Teresa's work really helping people? Some critics questioned the conditions in her homes and her acceptance of donations from disreputable sources. The Church's judgment — demonstrated by canonization — is that her fundamental orientation of love for Christ in the poor was heroically virtuous. Prudential judgments in charitable administration are distinct from the question of heroic virtue (CCC 2449).