Pope adds feast day of St. Teresa of Kolkata to universal calendar

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has added the feast day of St. Teresa of Kolkata, a “beacon of hope” and an example of loving service to the poorest of the poor, to the General Roman Calendar so that her “Optional Memorial shall be celebrated by all on 5 September every year.”

Cardinal Arthur Roche and Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, respectively prefect and secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, announced the pope’s decision in a decree published by the Vatican Feb. 11.

Previously the feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta, as the Vatican refers to the city in India where she began her work with the abandoned poor, was inscribed only in the proper calendar of the Missionaries of Charity and the proper calendar of India. Now her memorial is included in the calendar of the universal church.

“Canonized in 2016 by Pope Francis, the name of Teresa of Calcutta continues to shine out as a source of hope for many men and women who seek consolation amidst tribulations of body and spirit,” said the decree, dated Dec. 24.

Pope Francis, responding to the requests of bishops, religious and laypeople “and considering the influence exercised by the spirituality of Saint Teresa in different parts of the world,” decided to add her to the universal calendar, the decree said.

In a separate note, Cardinal Roche described Mother Teresa as “a beacon of hope, small in stature yet great in love, a witness to the dignity and privilege of humble service in the defense of all human life and of all those who have been abandoned, discarded and despised even in the hiddenness of the womb.”

Bishops’ conferences around the world will need to translate from Latin the prayers issued by the dicastery for Mass on her feast day as well as those used in the Liturgy of the Hours and have the translations confirmed by the dicastery.

Cardinal Roche said the collect or opening prayer for Mass on her feast day “opens for us the heart of her spirituality: the call to satisfy the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross by answering with love the needs of the most needy. For this reason, we beseech God the Father that, imitating her example, we may minister to Christ present in our suffering brothers and sisters.”

The Gospel reading for her feast is from the 25th chapter of St. Matthew, the cardinal said, which lists “the works of mercy” — feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, welcoming strangers — and it “contains the following words brought wonderfully to life in Mother Teresa: ‘Whatever you have done to the very least of my brothers and sisters you have done also to me.'”