Pope to beatify nun known as 'Mother'
VATICAN CITY -- They call her, simply, "Mother."
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From every corner of the earth, tens of thousands of pilgrims have descended on Rome to honor the woman they have always considered a saint, the Albanian nun in the blue-striped white sari who ministered to the poorest of the poor, first in India and then throughout the world.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who is to be beatified today by Pope John Paul II, is poised to become the first truly modern Roman Catholic saint -- a 20th century woman who, thanks to television, was known throughout the world during her lifetime and was acclaimed as saintly long before she will formally be granted that designation. She died in 1997 at age 87.
"This 85-pound Albanian nun is the most recognizable icon of holiness in recent decades, and I think the pope is really speaking for the entire church in lifting her up as an example," said George Weigel, a papal biographer and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. "In a sense, this is a return to the traditional pattern of doing these things by acclamation."
John Paul II, who marked the 25th anniversary of his papacy on Thursday, has been naming saints at a record-breaking pace; he has canonized more individuals than the previous 24 popes combined. Before today's ceremony, he had proclaimed 1,324 blesseds in 140 beatification ceremonies -- the final step before sainthood -- and 477 saints in 51 canonization ceremonies, according to the Vatican.
The pace of saint-making has drawn some concern from scholars who say it could diminish the value of sainthood. Some also have said that too many of John Paul II's saints have been priests and nuns and too few have been lay people.
But the pope, who had met several times with Mother Teresa and who chose to beatify her as part of the celebrations surrounding his anniversary, is adamant that the great works of priests, nuns, and lay people in modern times should be recognized. In Catholic tradition, saints are recognized for having led lives of heroic virtue. Catholics often venerate popular saints, asking them to intercede on their behalf.
"As a means of highlighting the witness of holiness, I urge my brother bishops to recognize and to call attention to the signs of holiness and heroic virtue which are also appearing in our own days," the pope declared Thursday in Pastores Gregis, a document in which he urged bishops to consider nominating more priests, nuns, and lay people for sainthood. "This will prove a sign of hope for everyone and a source of encouragement for the pilgrim People of God in its witness before the world to the permanent presence of grace in the fabric of human history."
John Paul II's lengthy pontificate -- he is now the fourth-longest-serving pope in history -- has allowed him time to canonize numerous people, but he has also made the canonization process an unprecedented priority.
"He places a high premium on personal virtue and spirituality," said the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame and the author of "Lives of the Saints."
"Making so many saints is, for him, a dramatic statement that striving for sanctity is what being a Catholic Christian is all about."
The pilgrims who flocked to the Vatican this weekend say Mother Teresa is a sign that holiness is possible, even in modern times.
"She's going to be a saint from our lifetime -- somebody who lived while we were alive, who we can relate to," said Angela Cavaluzzo, 16, of Allentown, Pa., who arrived in Rome yesterday with a group of students from Allentown Central Catholic High School. "It makes the whole saint thing seem more real and brings the church a lot closer."
Visitors are packing into a free exhibit on Mother Teresa's life in the crypt of Rome's Antonianum, where they can see the nun's sari, sandals, passport, registers used to keep patient records, and writings describing her struggles of faith.
"I think there is a message for Americans here, that simplicity in life should be a model for us and we've put material wealth above all," said Emily Davis, an American pilgrim who had just been to the exhibition.
That sentiment explains why many Americans have traveled to Rome for the beatification, said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, of Washington, who is leading 300 pilgrims.
"In a land where there's a lot of affluence and where people have so much, I think we are always challenged by someone who has nothing and who works with people who have nothing," McCarrick said. "That was Mother's great gift to us."
The Vatican is frantically preparing for today's ceremony. Anticipating several hundred thousand people for the outdoor Mass, the church has set up huge television screens on Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue stretching from St. Peter's Square to the Tiber River, and a covered portrait of Mother Teresa hangs above the entrance to the basilica, waiting to be unveiled at the ceremony.
At the Rome headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa, phones have rung nonstop for days as the nuns greet pilgrims, serve food to volunteers, and complete preparations for the ceremony.
"This is an amazing experience to be here," said Sister Mary, who came from London to attend the ceremony. "Everyone is excited."
Although many front-row seats for the ceremony have been reserved for heads of state and other political dignitaries, 3,000 seats have been set aside for the poor, who also will be served a meal afterward inside the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican.
"This was our idea, and the Vatican was very happy," said the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk from the Missionaries of Charity. "Perhaps the representation of the poor at the ceremony will also bring attention to the problem."
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, in what was then the Ottoman Empire and now the Macedonian capital, Mother Teresa left home at 18 to become a missionary. In 1946, while working as a nun in India, she heard Jesus asking her to start a religious order to work with the poor.
She then embarked on a five-decade career overseeing projects that provided compassionate care and comfort to the very poor and the very sick, orphans, lepers, and the dying, including AIDS patients. By the time of her death, there were 4,000 sisters in 123 countries, and her work had been honored with the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.
"I've seen more smiles among the wretched in Mother Teresa's compound than I've seen if I go to the Copley Place mall, and I ask myself why," said Monsignor Robert Sheeran, president of Seton Hall University. "She combined a faith that is focused, that is simple, that is unified, and that is tenacious. And if you put those things together, you just have an amazingly attractive holy person."
She visited Massachusetts several times: In 1982, she gave a commencement address at Harvard; in 1987, she visited a church in Billerica and scouted sites for her order in the Mission Hill section of Boston; in 1988, she spoke to inmates at state prisons in Concord, Framingham, and Walpole and scouted sites for her order in Dorchester; and in 1995, she visited her order's houses in New Bedford and Dorchester as well as churches in New Bedford and Newton.
Among those who had met Mother Teresa is Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, who as a Franciscan Capuchin friar shares Mother Teresa's interest in helping the poor. O'Malley had invited Mother Teresa to open missions in two dioceses he previously headed, in the Virgin Islands and Fall River, and he had spent time with her in New Bedford, New York, and Nicaragua.
"There probably won't be anybody else that I know personally who'll be canonized, so I would like to be there personally to be a part of this celebration," O'Malley told reporters in Boston on Thursday. "One of my comments about her canonization is that it's redundant. I think the whole world, even while she was alive, considered this woman as so holy and so special and so filled with God."
The regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity in Dorchester, Sister Dominga, said Mother Teresa thought all people have the potential to be saints.
"I remember once . . . a news reporter asked her, `Aren't you embarrassed, Mother Teresa, that people call you a saint?' " Sister Dominga said. "She looked straight at the reporter, and she said: `No. That's what we're all meant to be. That's the meaning of our lives.' . . . Part of the joy that she showed us is what it means to be a normal human being. And to be a saint is to be really normal. So there's hope for all of us."
Mac Daniel of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Boston. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com
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