Hitchhiker's Guide to Religion
Catholic

Mother Teresa

The Saint of Calcutta

Catholic Care of the dying, the poorest of the poor, hidden suffering
Attribute Value
Combat
ATK 10
DEF 60
SPR 95
SPD 55
INT 75
Rank Founder of the Missionaries of Charity / Nobel Peace Prize laureate / Saint
Domain Care of the dying, the poorest of the poor, hidden suffering
Alignment Holy / Modern
Weakness After her death her published letters revealed roughly fifty years of what she called "the dark night" -- a near-total absence of felt consolation in prayer, a sense of God's silence she carried while smiling for the cameras. Critics (Christopher Hitchens most prominently) raised serious questions about the medical quality of her hospices; defenders note she was running spiritual hospices for the dying, not hospitals
Key Act Born in Skopje (Albanian Catholic family) in 1910. Joined the Sisters of Loreto, taught in Calcutta. In 1946, on a train to Darjeeling, received what she called "a call within the call" -- to leave the convent and serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta's slums. Founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. Built a global network of homes for the dying, the abandoned, lepers, and AIDS patients. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1979. Beatified 2003, canonized 2016
Source her own writings; *Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light* (posthumous letters, 2007); biographies

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa

Anjeze Bojaxhiu — Albanian, Indian by adoption, global by influence — spent forty-seven years working with the dying in Calcutta and built an order now serving the poor in over a hundred and thirty countries. The posthumous publication of her private letters caused theological shock: this most public exemplar of joyful Christian service had endured a half-century interior darkness, her sense of God’s presence almost entirely withdrawn, and had continued the work anyway. Within Catholic spiritual tradition this places her in continuity with John of the Cross’s “dark night of the soul”; outside it, opinions vary. Canonized by Pope Francis in 2016.


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Combat Radar

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