Mother Teresa, who was known for serving the sick and poorest of the poor in Calcutta (now Kolkata), will be canonised on Sunday. Pope Francis will announce her as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at an event in Vatican 19 years after her death.
Mother Teresa was born in 1910, in the present day Macedonia, but she came to India in 1929 and took its citizenship in 1951. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, in 1950 with an aim to serve the poorest of the poor – the hungry, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers – and those rejected by the society.
She opened the first Home for the Dying in Calcutta in 1952, taking care of the leprosy, tuberculosis, HIV and other patients. Today, the Missionaries of Charity sisters help the poor and neglected in 133 countries.
Some have criticised the care homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, claiming the places as unhygienic. However, it is a known fact that Mother Teresa cleaned the wounds of the lepers and took care of the sick at a time when Calcutta city was in abject poverty. She was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her service towards the poor.
She passed away on Sept. 5, 1997 and was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta" in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, initiating the progress of sainthood.
Mother Teresa is scheduled to be canonised on Sept. 4, 2016, at St. Peter's Square in Vatican. The canonisation ceremony will begin at 10:30 AM (local time) (1:45 PM IST / 9:30 AM BST / 1:30 AM PDT / 2:30 AM MDT / 3:30 AM CDT / 4:30 AM EDT). The event will also be live streamed online on The Catholic Herald.
