Day 30 – Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997)

Saint Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, in present-day North Macedonia, and joined a Catholic order of nuns as a teenager. At the age of eighteen, she left home never to return, dedicating herself wholly to God’s service. She was sent to Calcutta, India, where she taught in a school for girls. Yet in 1946, on a train ride, she experienced what she later called “the call within the call” — a deep conviction that Christ was asking her to leave the convent school and serve Him among the poorest of the poor.

With only a few rupees and an undaunted faith, she stepped into the slums of Calcutta to care for the sick, the dying, and the destitute. Others soon joined her, and the Missionaries of Charity was born, a community devoted to serving Christ in “the distressing disguise of the poor.” Clad in a simple white sari with blue stripes, Mother Teresa became a living icon of mercy.

Her work gained worldwide recognition, earning her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, but she never sought fame. In her private writings, later published, she revealed a long inner struggle with spiritual darkness, yet even in that hidden suffering, she remained steadfast in love. Her life bore witness that holiness is found not in comfort but in service, not in acclaim but in pouring oneself out for others.

For us today, Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta reminds us that to love Christ is to love the least of His brothers and sisters. Her legacy calls us to see the face of Jesus in the hungry, the sick, and the forgotten, and to serve with humility and joy.