A Special Mass in thanksgiving for the canonization of Mother Teresa
will take place on Sunday 23 October in Knock Basilica. The Chief
Celebrant will be Archbishop Charles J Brown, Papal Nuncio to Ireland.
Mother Teresa was canonized on Sunday 4 September. Commenting on the
canonization Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said, “With her
canonisation, the Church is offering Saint Teresa of Calcutta to all of
us, as a model of hope, charity and mercy. Saint Teresa of Calcutta was a
champion of the poor and continues to be a source of inspiration to all
of us, especially during this Year of Mercy we are celebrating at the
invitation of Pope Francis.”
Born in 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia, to Albanian parents, Anjezë Gonxhe
Bojaxhiu joined the Loreto Order and lived in Ireland until she was
sent to India in 1929. There, she worked with the poorest of the poor, a
vocation that led her to found her own order, the Missionaries of
Charity, in 1950, in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
By 2012, that congregation
numbered 4,500 sisters, working among the destitute and outcast in 133
countries. She was regarded by many as a saint within her lifetime and
Pope (now Saint) John Paul II waived the usual 5-year waiting protocol
to begin the process of her canonisation. Mother Teresa was beatified in
2003.
All are welcome to Knock on Saturday for Anointing of the Sick at 2.30pm and Mass beginning at 3.00pm.
For more see www.knockshrine.ie.