"Be Jesus to everyone you meet and in everyone you meet see Jesus" Feast Day: 5 September

Mother Teresa of Calcutta has been, for many, the female face of the modern Catholic Church. In serving the people abandoned by society, the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa put love into action. Her spirit of giving inspired many to follow her, and will certainly inspire the young people of the world to 'love until it hurts', and thus follow the steps of Jesus in laying down one's life for others. She knew no limits to the love of Jesus Christ expressed in her care for the poorest of the poor.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje, Macedonia of Albanian descent on 26 August, 1910. At 12 she had already realised that God was calling her to give her life to Him, and at 18 she left home and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns who worked primarily in India. She took her vows on 24 May, 1931 and spent her early years teaching in St Mary's High School. However, amidst the poverty and suffering of the slums of Calcutta, Mother Teresa found her second calling to be one with the poor and started an open-air school in the slums.

In 1950 Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican to start a diocesan congregation whose mission was to care for all those who had been rejected by society and suffered physically and emotionally as a result. The Missionaries of Charity was founded and in 1952 she opened their first Home for the Dying.

By the 1970s as the number of abandoned children and adults grew, the order opened leprosy outreach clinics, orphanages and free hospices in abandoned temples and warehouses.

By the 1980s the Missionaries of Charity had spread internationally and houses opened in Australia, Europe, Africa, Europe and the US. In 1982 Mother Teresa rescued 37 children in Beirut, who had been trapped in a hospital, influencing the arrangement of a cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. She travelled personally to the site with Red Cross workers, a demonstration of her courage and perseverance in following God's will. She continued her international influence with work in Ethiopia, with the victims of radiation in Chernobyl, the victims of the Armenian earthquake and into Communist countries. By 1996 517 missions were operating in over 100 countries.

Mother Teresa received numerous awards for her work, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In the face of such global attention Mother Teresa used the spotlight to address important social and moral issues. She understood poverty not only in terms of being without means but in being poor of knowledge of the love of Christ.

From an initial heart attack in 1983, Mother Teresa's health began to deteriorate into the early 1990s. After being sick with malaria and the collapse of a part of her heart, she finally stepped down from community leadership in March 1997. Just over a week after her 87th birthday, Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta was not only a Missionary of Charity nun, but simply a missionary of charity, the fire of Christ's charity. She lived this while also patiently enduring a very long trial of faith. WYD08 pilgrims can ask her for eyes to see Jesus in each person, to protect the dignity of each person from conception to natural death.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, witness to the poor and the dying - pray for us