Mother Teresa, after a lifetime amid the world’s indigent, unwanted, sick and dying, will spend eternity among the saints.
The beloved nun, with her wrinkled face and wide grin, completes her journey from Calcutta’s filthiest slums to the highest echelon of the Catholic Church with her Sunday canonization.
Her elevation comes one day before the 19th anniversary of her death. And it comes as no surprise to those who say “The Saint of the Gutters” deserved the honor while she was still alive.
“A no-brainer,” said Timothy Cardinal Dolan.
The 4-foot-11 Mother Teresa became a towering figure of compassion recognized around the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979; a decade earlier, Pope John Paul VI hailed the diminutive nun as an “intrepid messenger of the love of Christ.”
Her influence knew no boundaries: She was honored in 1985 with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award presented by the United States.
Two years later, Mother Teresa received a Gold Medal from the Soviet Peace Committee — and later opened a shelter in Moscow
“By blood, I am Albanian,” she once said. “By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of Jesus.”
She tirelessly traveled the globe in aid of an ever-changing constituency — the starving masses of Ethiopia, the radiation-ravaged victims of Chernobyl, the earthquake victims of Armenia, the battle-scarred children of Beirut.
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In New York, she built homeless shelters in Harlem, a soup kitchen in the South Bronx and an AIDS hospice in Greenwich Village.
“In her lifetime, Mother Teresa was an icon of God's tender mercy, radiating the light of God's love to so many through the works of mercy — both material and spiritual,” said the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, appointed by the church to make the case for her sainthood.
“From heaven, she continues to fulfill her mission as she lights the light of those in darkness on earth.”
Canadian priest Kolodiejchuk unexpectedly found his calling during a 1977 meeting with Mother Teresa. He traveled to Rome with his parents to visit his sister, who had joined the nun’s order a year earlier.
Pope John Paul II holds hands with Mother Teresa. (LUCIANO MELLACE/REUTERS)
After attending a Mass where Mother Teresa welcomed seven new male inductees by pinning a cross above their hearts, she told Kolodiejchuk, “Oh, I would like to pin a cross on you, too.”
A day later, he joined his sibling in the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa had that effect on people.
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