Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Born far from the city she'd become known for

Teresa of Calcutta was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now the capital of North Macedonia — a detail that surprises people who assume, given her name, that she was Indian by birth. She joined the Sisters of Loreto as a young woman and was sent to India, where she spent nearly two decades teaching at a convent school in Calcutta, rising eventually to serve as its principal. By any ordinary measure, it was already a full and respectable religious vocation.

President Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom, White House Rose Garden, June 20, 1985 — White House Photographic Office, public domain via National Archives/DPLA.

A "call within a call"

In 1946, while traveling by train, she described experiencing what she and others later called a "call within a call" — a further, more specific summons within her existing religious vocation, directing her to leave the security of convent teaching and go live directly among Calcutta's poorest and most abandoned people. It took a few years to secure the necessary permissions and training, but in 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a new religious order dedicated specifically to caring for the destitute and the dying in the city's slums.

From one house in Calcutta to a worldwide order

What began as a small community working out of very limited means in Calcutta grew, over the following decades, into a religious congregation with a presence in dozens of countries around the world, running homes for the dying, orphanages, and care centers for people with leprosy and other conditions that left them abandoned by family or society. Mother Teresa herself became one of the most recognized religious figures of the 20th century, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for that work, though she remained personally committed to the same direct, hands-on care for the poor that had defined her calling from the start.

Canonized before an enormous crowd in Rome

Mother Teresa died in Calcutta in 1997 and was canonized on September 4, 2016, by Pope Francis, formally becoming Saint Teresa of Calcutta. In his canonization homily, Francis captured what he saw as the heart of her life's work: "For Mother Teresa, mercy was the 'salt' which gave flavour to her work, it was the 'light' which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering." Her feast is now kept on September 5, the anniversary of her death, and she has no single formal universal patronage — her legacy lives instead through the religious order she founded, still active today, and through her enduring reputation as one of the modern Church's clearest examples of mercy in action.

Trivia

What made Mother Teresa decide to leave her convent teaching post?

In 1946, after nearly two decades as a Loreto Sister teaching in Calcutta, she described experiencing a distinct call within her vocation — often referred to as her "call within a call" — to leave the convent and live directly among the city's poorest and dying, which led her to found the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

What does the Missionaries of Charity actually do?

Founded in Calcutta in 1950, the order is dedicated to caring for the poorest of the poor, particularly the sick, the dying, orphans, and the abandoned, and it expanded from a single house in Calcutta into a global religious congregation operating in dozens of countries by the time of her death.

When was Mother Teresa canonized, and what is her official saint name?

She was canonized on September 4, 2016, by Pope Francis, and is formally known in the Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta; her feast is kept on September 5, the anniversary of her death in 1997.

What did Pope Francis say about her at her canonization?

In his canonization homily, Pope Francis said that for Mother Teresa, mercy was "the 'salt' which gave flavour to her work, it was the 'light' which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering" — a line from the official homily published by the Vatican.

Is Mother Teresa the patron saint of a specific cause?

She doesn't hold one single formal universal patronage the way some older saints do; she's most closely associated with her own religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, and with World Youth Day, and is widely regarded as a modern symbol of care for the poorest and most abandoned members of society.