Mother Teresa’s legacy continues in Calcutta and across the world

Mother Teresa, who will be canonized to become Saint Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 4, was a Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, in Calcutta in 1950.

She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in Skopje, Macedonia on Aug. 26 1910. In 1928, when she was 17 years old, she joined the Sisters of Loreto order, and one year later was sent to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling, India, where she took her first vows.

In 1946, during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling and whilst recuperating from an illness, she received what she called ‘an order’ from God to live among the poor and left her convent to begin missionary work in Calcutta.

She began working in the slums of Calcutta, treating the sick in their homes and later started caring for the dying women, men and children which could be found in the streets of this eastern Indian city.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work.

After her death at the age of 87 on Sept. 5, 1997, Mother Teresa’s Indiabased Missionaries of Charity grew to consist of more than 4,000 nuns. They still run hundreds of orphanages, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and clinics around the world.

Following her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

The late pontiff beatified Mother Teresa in 2003 after the Vatican had recognized a first miracle attributed to her, the healing of an Indian woman suffering from an abdominal tumor through supernatural intervention.

On Mar. 15, this year, Pope Francis announced that Mother Teresa will be canonized into sainthood after he recognized a second miracle attributed to the late Catholic nun, the healing of a Brazilian man suffering from brain abscesses, after his wife prayed to Mother Teresa, in Dec. 2008.

The canonization ceremony will take place at the Vatican in Rome on Sept. 4 2016.