Key Events
Mother Teresa established hospitals for the sick and dying. She started this in Calcutta as she started a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, which spread throughout the world. Today the Order still cares for the poorest of the poor, the sick and dying. Mother Theresa and her nuns went out into the streets and picked up the dying homeless to bring them to her hospital. They clean them, feed them, pray with them, and serve them so that they can spend their last days or hours in dignity. She and her Order treat those dying of AIDS, the lepers, the untouchables, those whom nobody else will love and care for. She saw Our Blessed Lord in everyone of them, in disguise, pleading for our help and love. She treated them as she would treat Our Lord.
Mother Teresa was beatified on 19 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s square in Rome. She is honored in all the dioceses in India and by all the members of the religious family she founded, the Missionaries of Charity. Beatification is a step in the process of canonisation. This means the Pope allows public veneration of the person in the local Church, within the religious congregation with which the person was associated with and in other places that need such permission.
In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards given to her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972), the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (1996) and honorary degrees from a number of universities.
Mother Teresa was beatified on 19 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s square in Rome. She is honored in all the dioceses in India and by all the members of the religious family she founded, the Missionaries of Charity. Beatification is a step in the process of canonisation. This means the Pope allows public veneration of the person in the local Church, within the religious congregation with which the person was associated with and in other places that need such permission.
In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards given to her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972), the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (1996) and honorary degrees from a number of universities.