St. Teresa of Calcutta's feast day enters the General Roman Calendar.
The September 5 feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta was added to the liturgical calendar via a decree released by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on February 11.
The decree noted St. Teresa’s spiritual inspiration across the globe, saying that she “continues to shine out as a source of hope for many men and women who seek consolation amid tribulations of body and spirit.”
The decree, signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said, “Radically living the Gospel and boldly proclaiming it, St. Teresa of Calcutta is a witness to the dignity and honor of humble service. By choosing not only to be the least but the servant of the least, she became a model of mercy and an authentic icon of the Good Samaritan.”
Roche said Pope Francis has requested St. Teresa’s feast day be added to the Roman calendar in response to the requests from bishops, religious, and laypeople.
The General Roman Calendar states the dates of holy days and the feast days of saints commemorated annually.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, an Albanian-Indian nun, was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje on August 26, 1910. Skopje was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, which now has more than 5,000 members of religious sisters.
She was a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding, an honor she received in 1962 for her missionary work in parts of Asia.
In 1979, she was conferred the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to help ease poverty, which was seen as one of the issues that undermined peace.
She was beatified on October 19, 2003, by Pope John Paul II and canonized on September 4, 2016, by Pope Francis.
Her feast day will be observed as an optional liturgical memorial annually on September 5. It will appear in calendars and liturgical texts with prayers and readings at Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
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