m. teresa 3

On 10 September 1946...

Teresa experienced what she later described as 'the call within the call', when she traveled by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat: 'I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.'...

She began missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple, white cotton sari with a blue border.

In 1952... 

Teresa opened her first hospice, with help from Calcutta officials. 

She converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying Destitues, free for the poor, and renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart [Nirmal Hriday]. 

Those brought to the home received medical attention and the opportunity to die with dignity in accordance with their faith: Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received extreme unction. 

'A beautiful death', Teresa said... 

'is for people who lived like animals... 

to die like angels -- loved and wanted.' 

[bron]