Pope Francis announced the canonization of five new saints today, a list that includes Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose canonization ceremony will take place on September 4. Other notable canonizations announced for this year include Blessed Jose Sanchez Del Rio and Blessed Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, the Polish-born founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting on the upcoming canonizations which were made official during a consistory of cardinals that took place today in Rome.
September 4 was the date chosen for the canonization of Mother Teresa, a day that will also mark a special jubilee for workers and volunteers of mercy.
Born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia on August 26, 1910, Teresa joined the Sisters of Loretta at the age of 17. She was sent to Calcutta where she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to rest in Darjeeling. It was during this time of rest that she heard the “order” from God to leave the convent and live among the poor.
After securing the necessary dispensations, she went to work in the slums, teaching poor children and treating the sick in their homes. A year later, she was joined by some of her former students who began taking in men, women and children who were dying in the streets. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity which claims as their mission the care of “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”
Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio
What began as a community of 12 people is now a 4,500-member order that spans the globe, working amongst the poor in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe and Australia.
She died Sept. 5, 1997, and was beatified just six years later by St. John Paul II Oct. 19, 2003.
In addition to Mother Teresa, the consistory also decided upon the canonization date for Bl. Jose Sanchez del Rio, the heralded young martyr of the Mexican Cristeros war, which is scheduled for October 16.
On the same day, Blessed Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brocher, an Argentinian more popularly known as the “gaucho priest” will also be canonized.
June 5 is the day chosen for the canonization of Blessed Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, the Polish-born founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
A convert from Lutheranism named Blessed Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad of Sweden, who founded a new branch of Bridgettine sisters dedicated to praying for unification of Scandinavian Christians with the Church, will also be canonized on that day and will be the first Swedish saint in more than 600 years.
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