Canonization to focus on mercy and the poor

VATICAN CITY  Blessed Mother Teresa’s canonization on Sept. 4, will also mark a special jubilee for workers and volunteers of mercy who serve the poor.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje, Mace­donia. After joining the Sisters of Loretto at age 17, she was sent to Calcutta, where she later contracted tuberculosis, and was sent to rest in Darjeeling.

On the way, she felt what she called “an order” from God to leave the convent and live among the poor.

After she left her convent, Mother Teresa began working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. A year later, some of her former students joined her, and together they took in men, women and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets.

In 1950, the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta. In 1952, the government granted them a house from which to continue their mission of serving Calcutta’s poor and forgotten.

She died Sept. 5, 1997, and was beatified just six years later by St. John Paul II Oct. 19, 2003.

In the days before the canonization Mass at 10:30 a.m. Rome time Sept. 4, a “feast for the poor and Missionaries of Charity family,” a musical, Masses and prayer vigils will be held.

— Catholic News Agency