Mother Teresa’s feast reminds Catholics: Sanctity is found in doing ‘small things with great love’

On September 5, the Church honors Saint Teresa of Calcutta, a woman who became a global figure while insisting that holiness is found in small, hidden acts of love.

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in present-day North Macedonia, she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland as a teenager and was sent to teach in India. It was there, among the poor of Calcutta, that she discerned her call to serve the destitute and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. 

What began with a handful of sisters in Calcutta grew into a congregation serving in more than 130 countries, running orphanages, homes for the dying, and shelters for the abandoned — continuing her mission of seeing Christ in “the poorest of the poor.”

Mother Teresa became one of the most recognizable figures of the 20th century and even received the Nobel Peace Prize, yet she consistently taught that holiness is not found in extraordinary achievements but in humble service.

“Not all of us can do great things,” she famously said. “But we can do small things with great love.”

Whether she was bathing the sick, comforting the dying, or teaching her sisters to smile while serving, she insisted sanctity begins in simple acts of fidelity. 

And yet, paradoxically, she became a global celebrity. Heads of state welcomed her, universities granted her honorary degrees, and journalists clamored to hear her words. She accepted such honors only reluctantly, always steering the focus back to Christ and the poor. 

For Catholics today, her life shows that holiness does not depend on obscurity or recognition but on faithfulness. Even if her face was known worldwide, the source of her sanctity was hidden — found in prayer, sacrifice, and daily service.

At her beatification in 2003, St. John Paul II called the nun “an icon of the Good Samaritan” and said that she “proclaimed the Gospel living her life as a total gift to the poor but, at the same time, steeped in prayer.”

Her hiddenness was especially real in her interior life. Letters published after her death revealed that she endured decades of spiritual dryness, a painful sense of distance from God that she carried silently. 

“In the darkest hours she clung even more tenaciously to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament,” St. John Paul II said. “This harsh spiritual trial led her to identify herself more and more closely with those whom she served each day, feeling their pain and, at times, even their rejection. She was fond of repeating that the greatest poverty is to be unwanted, to have no one to take care of you.”

This “dark night” could have crushed her mission but instead it purified her love. By persevering in joy and service despite her suffering, Mother Teresa became a witness that sanctity is not the absence of struggle, but the decision to love God and neighbor in the midst of it.

For Catholics marking her feast, Mother Teresa’s life is a reminder that holiness is not an abstract ideal or a distant vocation. It is found in the ordinary demands of daily life — in patience, honesty, kindness, and care for those entrusted to us.

Her feast also comes just days before the canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Sept. 7, a reminder that sainthood is not confined to one time or vocation. From a nun in Calcutta’s slums, to a teenager with a passion for the Eucharist, to a young man known for joyful service, the Church lifts up saints whose lives prove that holiness is possible for everyone.

Mother Teresa herself once said: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” On her feast, the faithful are reminded that God calls them not to extraordinary fame but to extraordinary love — a love revealed in the smallest acts, done with great fidelity.

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