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Mother Teresa in 1995
(Credit : Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

Pope Francis on February 11, 2025, added the Sept. 5 feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta to the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar as an optional memorial.

The decree issued by the Vatican noted the influence of St. Teresa’s spirituality around the world and said her name “continues to shine out as a source of hope for many men and women who seek consolation amid tribulations of body and spirit.”

The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, which denotes the dates of holy days and the feast days of saints commemorated annually.

The Sept. 5 memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta will now appear in the Church’s calendars and liturgical texts with specific prayers and readings to be used at Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

Memorials rank third in the classification of feast days on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar following "Solemnity" (highest rank) and "Feast" (middle rank). The memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta will be an optional memorial, which means it is voluntary whether to observe it.

Until now, her feast day was only inscribed in the proper calendar of the Missionaries of Charity and in the calendar of the Indian Catholic Church.

The decree was signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The decision to add the memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta to the General Roman Calendar was approved by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, 2024.

On Feb. 11, the liturgy dicastery published the decree and issued Latin texts for the new optional memorial to be translated by bishops’ conferences into the local languages and approved for publication by the dicastery.

According to a note from Cardinal Roche, the first reading chosen for Mass for the Sept. 5 memorial of Mother Teresa is taken from Isaiah 58 on the fast that is pleasing to God. The Psalm for the Mass will be Psalm 33: “I will bless the Lord at all times.”

The Gospel, he said, will be taken from St. Matthew, “which, after enumerating the works of mercy, 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’ (Mt 25:40).”

About St. Teresa of Calcutta

Popularly known as Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of Calcutta was born in Skopje, Macedonia on August 26, 1910 as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She professed solemn vows as a Sister of Loreto in Calcutta, India, in 1937. In 1950, she left the Sisters of Loreto to found the Missionaries of Charity, which now numbers over 6,000 sisters active in 130 countries who serve those most in need.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died in 1997 at the age of 87 after spending most of her life serving the poor in Calcutta, India.

Pope St. John Paul II beatified her on October 19, 2003 and Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

- Article by Catholic Time Staff