The Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The canonization of Mother Teresa will occur on September 4, 2016. Teach students about the life of Saint Teresa of Calcutta and review the canonization process with the resources below!

Mother Teresa Biography for Kids

Mother Teresa was born was born in a city call Skpoje, located in Macedonia, in the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. Her parents called her Agnes. When Agnes was just twelve, she realized God was calling her to become a missionary. She read all the stories she could find about the work of Catholic missionaries around the world. And she studied geography to learn about the lands where missionaries worked.

When Agnes was eighteen years old, she joined the Sisters of Loreto. The Sisters of Loreto are a community of Irish sisters who did missionary work in India. She traveled first to Ireland, where she began her studies. Then she was sent to India in 1929. At the time, India was part of the British Empire and was ruled by England. In 1947, India gained its independence thanks to the work of Mohandas Gandhi and others. India was then divided into two nations, India and Pakistan. In 1971 East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh. Today the nation of India is the world's largest liberal democracy. In India, Agnes took her first vows as a sister. She chose Teresa as her religious name in honor of Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

From the time she first arrived in India until 1948, Mother Teresa was a teacher. She taught at Saint Mary's High School in Calcutta. Many of the students at the school were girls from wealthy families. But the city of Calcutta was very large, and many people who lived there were very poor. Day after day, Mother Teresa saw the difficult lives of Calcutta's poor people. She wanted to help these poor people to live better lives.

In 1948 Pope Pius XII and Teresa's order allowed her to leave Saint Mary's and devote her life to caring for the homeless people on the streets of Calcutta. Teresa studied nursing so that she would be able to help the sick. She opened a school for Calcutta's poorest children. She stopped wearing the religious habit of the Sisters of Loreto. Instead she wore the clothes of a poor Indian woman: a plain cotton sari and sandals.

As word of Mother Teresa's new mission spread, volunteers -- young women from India and around the world -- arrived to help her in her work. Then, in 1950, the Church gave Mother Teresa permission to start a new order of religious sisters, the Missionaries of Charity. Their mission is to love and serve the poor, especially those who have no one else to care for them. During her long life among the poor, Mother Teresa received many honors. One of these was the Nobel Peace Prize, which she received in 1979. When she died, her adopted country of India gave her a state funeral. The ceremonies were broadcast on television around the world. In 2003, only six years after her death, Mother Teresa was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II. On September 4, Mother Teresa will be canonized a saint by Pope Francis.

Today the Missionaries of Charity serve the poorest of the poor in countries around the world, from the streets of India to the streets of New York. And, as Saint Teresa reminded us, with yesterday gone and tomorrow not yet here, we have only today to reach out and help those who need it most. So let us begin!

Download a Saint Teresa of Calcutta Activity for primary and intermediate students to share with your students on September 4^th.

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