Mother Teresa, August 26, 1910 â September 5, 1997
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
-Mother Teresa, August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997
The Mission Moments from now until September 4th will be by and about Mother Teresa.
How Does One Become a Saint? For almost the first millennium of the Church’s life, there was no centralized canonization process with investigation into the person’s life and miracles attributed to his or her intercession. The local Church recognized as saints holy women and men whose life and death demonstrated great virtue. The term “Servant of God” now describes someone at the start of the entire process, which begins in the local diocese and eventually moves to the Holy See’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. A person whose life and writings have been formally investigated can be declared Venerable. Martyrs do not need a miracle for beatification. For others, after a miracle has been investigated and accepted by separate committees of doctors, theologians, and cardinals, the person is approved for beatification. The final step for canonization is the verification of two miracles attributed to that holy person’s intercession, both of which undergo intense scrutiny. Mother Teresa’s Road to Sainthood Scarcely two years after the death of Mother Teresa in September 1997, the Archbishop of Calcutta at the time, Monsignor Henry D’Souza, requested that Pope John Paul II dispense with the five-year waiting period required before beginning the process of beatification and canonization.
On March 9, 1999, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., one of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, was appointed postulator of Mother Teresa’s cause. The first session of the process took place at St. Mary Parish, in Rippon Lane, Calcutta, a church Mother had attended on numerous occasions, as it was closest to the Missionaries of Charity’s motherhouse. At the conclusion of the first stage of the process in Calcutta on August 15, 2001, the second stage began, this time in Rome. Between 2001 and 2002, thirty-five thousand pages of documentation were collected, called the “Position.” This, plus the approval in December 2002 of Monika Besra’s miraculous cancer cure (which had occurred on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death), led to Mother Teresa’s beatification at St. Peter Square on October 19, 2003 (World Missions Day).
-Mother Teresa, August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997
The Mission Moments from now until September 4th will be by and about Mother Teresa.
How Does One Become a Saint? For almost the first millennium of the Church’s life, there was no centralized canonization process with investigation into the person’s life and miracles attributed to his or her intercession. The local Church recognized as saints holy women and men whose life and death demonstrated great virtue. The term “Servant of God” now describes someone at the start of the entire process, which begins in the local diocese and eventually moves to the Holy See’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. A person whose life and writings have been formally investigated can be declared Venerable. Martyrs do not need a miracle for beatification. For others, after a miracle has been investigated and accepted by separate committees of doctors, theologians, and cardinals, the person is approved for beatification. The final step for canonization is the verification of two miracles attributed to that holy person’s intercession, both of which undergo intense scrutiny. Mother Teresa’s Road to Sainthood Scarcely two years after the death of Mother Teresa in September 1997, the Archbishop of Calcutta at the time, Monsignor Henry D’Souza, requested that Pope John Paul II dispense with the five-year waiting period required before beginning the process of beatification and canonization.
On March 9, 1999, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., one of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, was appointed postulator of Mother Teresa’s cause. The first session of the process took place at St. Mary Parish, in Rippon Lane, Calcutta, a church Mother had attended on numerous occasions, as it was closest to the Missionaries of Charity’s motherhouse. At the conclusion of the first stage of the process in Calcutta on August 15, 2001, the second stage began, this time in Rome. Between 2001 and 2002, thirty-five thousand pages of documentation were collected, called the “Position.” This, plus the approval in December 2002 of Monika Besra’s miraculous cancer cure (which had occurred on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death), led to Mother Teresa’s beatification at St. Peter Square on October 19, 2003 (World Missions Day).
