Arnold Janssen (1837-1909)

Arnold Janssen was born on November 5, 1837 in Goch, a small city in lower Rhineland
(Germany). The second of ten children, his parents instilled in him a deep devotion to religion.
He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1861 for the diocese of Muenster and was assigned to
teach natural sciences and mathematics in a secondary school in Bocholt. There he was known
for being a strict but just teacher. Due to his profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he
was named Diocesan Director for the Apostleship of Prayer. This apostolate encouraged Arnold
to open himself to Christians of other denominations.

Little by little he became more aware of the spiritual needs of people beyond the limits of his
own diocese, developing a deep concern for the universal mission of the church. He decided to
dedicate his life to awaking in the German church its missionary responsibility. With this in
mind, in 1873 he resigned from his teaching post and soon after founded The Little Messenger of
the Sacred Heart. This popular monthly magazine presented news of missionary activities and it
encouraged German-speaking Catholics to do more to help the missions.

These were difficult times for the Catholic Church in Germany. Bismark unleashed the
“Kulturkampf» with a series of anti-Catholic laws, which led to the expulsion of priests and
religious and to the imprisonment of many bishops. In this chaotic situation Arnold Janssen
proposed that some of the expelled priests could go to the foreign missions or at least help in the
preparation of missionaries. Slowly but surely, and with a little prodding from the Apostolic
Vicar of Hong Kong, Arnold discovered that God was calling him to undertake this difficult task.
Many people said that he was not the right man for the job, or that the times were not right for
such a project. Arnold's answer was, “The Lord challenges our faith to do something new,
precisely when so many things are collapsing in the Church.”

With the support of a number of bishops, Arnold inaugurated the mission house on September 8,
1875 in Steyl, Holland, and thus began the Divine Word Missionaries. Already on March 2, 1879
the first two missionaries set out for China. One of these was Joseph Freinademetz.

Aware of the importance of publications for attracting vocations and funding, Arnold started a
printing press just four months after the inauguration of the house. Thousands of generous lay
persons contributed their time and effort to mission animation in German-speaking countries by
helping to distribute the magazines from Steyl. From the beginning the new congregation
developed as a community of both priests and Brothers.

The volunteers at the mission house included women as well as men. From practically the very
beginning, a group of women, including Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk, served the
community. But their wish was to serve the mission as Religious Sisters. The faithful, selfless
service they freely offered, and a recognition of the important role women could play in
missionary outreach, urged Arnold to found the mission congregation of the “Servants of the
Holy Spirit,” SSpS, on December 8, 1889. The first Sisters left for Argentina in 1895.
In 1896 Fr. Arnold selected some of the Sisters to form a cloistered branch, to be known as
“Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration”, SSpSAP. Their service to mission would
be to maintain an uninterrupted adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, praying day and night for
the church and especially for the other two active missionary congregations.

Arnold died on January 15, 1909. His life was filled with a constant search for God's will, a great
confidence in divine providence, and hard work. That his work has been blessed is evident in the
subsequent growth of the communities he founded: more than 6,000 Divine Word Missionaries
are active in 63 countries, more than 3,800 missionary Servants of the Holy Spirit, and more than
400 Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
St. Joseph Freinademetz, the missionary
By Father Stanley Plutz SVD

St. Arnold Janssen founded a missionary society, the Society of the Divine
Word. St. Joseph Freinademetz became the kind of missionary Father
Janssen had in mind in establishing the religious congregation.

Although Father Janssen and Father Freinademetz spent only a short time
together in the first mission house in Steyl, both were beatified and then
canonized together.

God called Father Arnold Janssen to found the Society of the Divine Word.
God called Father Joseph Freinademetz to be the ideal missionary of the
Society of the Divine Word. Why can we call Father Joseph Freinademetz this
ideal missionary?

Let us recall a few events of his life to show that he is this model missionary.

Joseph was born to Catholic parents and into a poor farming family in the Alp
Mountains. After he finished the fourth grade, his father apprenticed him to an
enterprising tailor, Mr. Thaler. Without money, God through this good man got
the young Joseph started on his way to the priesthood, his vocation.

As boy in a strange city—an 11-hour walk from his home—Joseph did

household chores for a lady in order to have a place to sleep. He became a
working student in the school where he could continue his studies. To survive,
he begged for his food.

He graduated from his elementary schooling with honors. And he received

scholarships for his high grades and for his singing in the cathedral choir for
eight years of studies and plus his theological courses. The bishop ordained
him a priest.

Although he was happy being an assistant priest in a parish near his home
and was loved by the people, especially by the children, he heard the children
of faraway China crying out for the bread of the Eucharist.

He joined Father Janssen and received an appointment for the Chinese

people in China. Once he arrived in China, he studied the language of the
people. He dressed as a Chinese person. He ate Chinese soy food and lived
in a house like the people. He learned the customs of the people and their
way of thinking. He told them about Jesus and brought them, with the help of
Holy Spirit, to faith in Jesus and his holy Church.

When the superior of the Franciscan Shantung mission wanted to make him
superior of the new mission territory, South Shantung (given by the
Franciscans to the Society of the Divine Word, Father Freinademetz knelt
down before him and would not get up until the superior said that he would
make his companion the head instead of him.

He traveled by Chinese junk up the Yellow River to Tsining, the capital of the
Shantung Province and the See of the bishop, and brought supplies. He then
had to take everything needed for Mass to Puoli, the center of the new
mission territory, which was quite a distance away.

With the help of several men, he wheeled them by wheelbarrows to Puoli. Of

the some 12 million people in the vast territory of South Shantung, there were
only 158 registered Catholics among them, mostly in the town of Puoli.

In Puoli, he went to the surrounding villages. He talked to the children and

showed his pocket watch to them. They were enthralled by the little man who
told the time.

Father Freinademetz explained that as someone had made the watch, so

God, the Great Spirit, had made all things. When the parents returned from
the fields in the evening, the children told them about the watch. They, too,
were curious to see it.

After several months in Puoli, his companion, now also his superior, sent him
to the farthest part of the mission—ten days away by ox cart. Father
Freinademetz went with a catechist. There he bought a house and organized
the territory into three areas. He systematically visited each of the villages in
each area.

The people gave him the name of Fu Shenfu: Fu as a shortened version of

Freinademetz and Shenfu, which means priest. When almost a year passed,
Fu Shenfu wished to go to confession and also report to his superior. He
returned to Puoli.

He made his confession, read and answered his mail. His superior, John von
Anzer, commissioned him to write a rule for catechists. The missionaries
realized the need for more catechists to help them in instructing those who
had received the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit.

Father Arnold Janssen in the meantime had sent more missionaries. One was
a carpenter, who immediately began to restore the neglected chapel.

Fu Shenfu had many adventures in his life and missionary work in China. For
example, he was beaten and robbed. The story is this: A lesser mandarin in a
certain district received the gift of faith, underwent instructions and received
baptism.

The newly baptized man also promoted the Catholic faith among his people. A
higher mandarin had him arrested, put in jail, and beaten with many blows.

The man’s relatives and friends appealed to Father Freinademetz. Father

Freinademetz sent a catechist ahead and came himself with a teacher as
soon as he could. They went to the mandarin, a mean man, who ruled with a
band of thugs. The convert was released only to be soon rearrested.

Then the thugs of the cruel mandarin went to the inn where Father
Freinademetz was staying with his catechist and teacher. The henchmen of
mandarin grabbed Fu Shenfu, forced him outside, threw him to the ground,
twisted his arm, pulled out some of his hair, lathered his face with waste from
the public privy, and dragged him out of the town.

Father Freinademetz preached to the gangsters as he was being dragged and

he also heard the confessions of his companions. Then suddenly when they
were about a mile out of town the gang leader said it was enough and left with
his gang members. The cart of Fu Shenfu had been robbed and severely
damaged. The three men stood up, looked at each other and began to laugh
since the others looked so funny.

Another time when Fu Shenfu was traveling during the rainy season with a
catechist, his horse—with him on it—fell into very deep and wide hole filled
with water.

Father Freinademetz caught a branch of a tree while his horse swam to solid
ground. The villagers working nearby rushed to Father Freinademetz and his
catechist and rescued them.

Father Freinademetz felt sad because he thought he had lost his divine office
book from which he had been praying while riding on his horse. Safe on solid
ground, lo and behold! In his wide sleeve, Father Freinademetz discovered his
divine office prayer book.

A delegation of person living in the south had been praying to learn the truth.
The Holy Spirit enlightened them and told them to go to the north, and they
would find the persons who would instruct them in the truth.
There they came upon some Christians, who informed Fu Shenfu. Father
Freinademetz sent a catechist with them, and he himself went later.

During the Boxer Rebellion, a fanatical group of Chinese was determined to

kill all foreigners and all Christians. The governor of Shantung forced the
missionaries to go the coast since he said that his soldiers could not protect
them in their various stations.

The missionaries gathered, and with a soldier escort started out for a city on
the coast. Fu Shenfu was in charge of the mission because his confrere John
Anzer, who had become a bishop, was in Europe. Father Freinademetz felt
responsible for the Christians.

He left with the other missionaries but after the first day he, with Brother Ulrich
at the end of the caravan, returned to the Christians in Puoli. He helped the
young Chinese priests prepare the Christians, more than one thousand
Christians who had gathered in the mission compound for preparing to suffer
possible martyrdom.

Father Freinademetz, Brother Ulrich and the young Chinese priests,

organized activities: a day of praying the rosary, a day of adoration of Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, a day for the Sacrament of Confession, and so forth.

The Boxers, or Long Knives, intensely hated all foreigners, so when peace in
the refugee camp had been restored among the factions, Father
Freinademetz and Brother Ulrich left so as not to cause more trouble for the
Christians. They left secretly for a safer place where the persecution was not
so intense.

After sometime when a report reached Fu Shenfu that trouble had again
broken out in the camp, he and Brother Ulrich, amid the greatest dangers,
made the trip back a second time. Father Freinademetz and Brother Ulrich
stopped at an inn of a friendly innkeeper, but someone recognized them and
alerted the Boxers.
The innkeeper let the two missionaries out through the back door. They
mingled with the crowd since they always wore Chinese clothes and thus
escaped. Brother Ulrich expressed his surprise about how forcefully the
usually gentle Father Freinademetz dealt with the situation upon their arrival
and brought order back into the camp.

While traveling through Boxer territory, Father Freinademetz and Brother

Ulrich fervently prayed the rosary to obtain Mother Mary’s protection. At least
one time they sighted a division of the Boxer army.

Upon hearing the danger to which Father Freinademetz had exposed himself
and Brother Ulrich, Father Janssen did not scold him but praised him: "You
defied almost certain death to be with your oppressed Christians. You
certainly believed that this was the special will of God…that I am willing to
admit. Therefore, I congratulate you wholeheartedly on what you have done."

Later, after the Germans had occupied a key city and the surrounding
territory, Fu Shenfu visited a small community of Christians. He stayed, but a
short time and left secretly so as not to cause trouble. Yet news spread that a
foreign missionary was present. About 200 hostile men mounted their best
horses and chased Father Freinademetz on his nag as he was leaving. How
he wished he had a racing horse!

They caught up with him and beat him up before releasing him. Beatings did
not stop him, though. The mission work that especially appealed to Fu Shenfu
was to preach the Gospel message to pagan persons, both adults and
children, to inform them about Jesus, to win them to faith in Jesus, to instruct
them further in the faith, prepare them for baptism, baptize them, get them
ready for their first Holy Communion, help them confess their sins, and
gradually to form with other believers a Christian community.

The bishop, however, gave Father Freinademetz other important

assignments, namely to start a catechist school and write a rule for catechists,
compose sermons in Chinese for the newly arriving missionaries, be the
rector of the seminary, and many other tasks.

During his time as rector of the seminary, Father Freinademetz gave a series
of talks explaining the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to those seminarians
immediately preparing for the priesthood. These were later put into the form of
a very inspiring little book entitled "The Most Holy Sacrifice of the New
Covenant" or in shortened form Sacrificium in Latin.
Although not the bishop, Father Freinademetz was six times administrator of
the mission while the bishop was in Europe. During one of those times, the
descendant of Confucius, the wise man of China, and some of his disciples
paid a visit to Fu Shenfu on the occasion of Chinese New Year.

Later Father Freinademetz and some other missionaries returned the visit.
Reporting on these visits to Father Janssen, he wrote a very enthusiastic
note, expressing the possibility of all the people of China becoming Christians
with the help of more missionaries.

Fu Shenfu often had the task of introducing newly arrived missionaries into
their missionary work. He developed a good relationship with these young
missionaries. When they had trouble with the bishop, they would go to Father
Freinademetz for advice.

He would listen to them and do what he could to intercede for them with the
bishop. However, trying to help the young missionaries got Fu Shenfu in
trouble with the bishop, who accused him of siding with them against him. The
bishop would exile Fu Shenfu to the most remote districts of the mission and
then summon him back for a special task or to defend him to higher superiors
in Rome.

When one of missionaries was in Europe for promoting the China mission, he
made known the faults of the bishop to some higher Society and Church
authorities. He mentioned that the bishop liked to parade as a great mandarin,
was fond of drinking to excess, and lost his temper easily.

When consulted about the conduct of the bishop, a retreat master whom
Father Freinademetz invited to give talks to the missionaries pointed out that
the bishop was ruining mission and had to be reported to the authorities in the
Vatican.

Father Freinademetz also had health problems. He would get laryngitis when
he got wet in the rain and could not immediately change into dry clothes. He
contracted tuberculosis and began spitting and coughing up blood some ten
years before his death. And finally typhus got him as he administered to
patients sick with the disease.
Our question may be asked again. Was Father Joseph Freinademetz the kind of missionary whom Father Arnold
Janssen envisioned? He was. Together, the two were beatified. Together, the two were canonized.
 Daniel Comboni (1831-1881)

Photo

Daniel Comboni: the son of poor gardeners who became the first Catholic Bishop of
Central Africa, and one of the great missionaries in the Church's history.

It is a fact. When God decides to take a hand and select a generous and open-hearted
individual, things happen: great, new things.

An “only child” - with holy parents

Daniel Comboni is born at Limone sul Garda (Brescia - Italy) on 15th, March 1831,
into a family of cultivators employed by one of the rich local proprietors. Luigi and
Domenica, the parents, are very attached to Daniel: he is the fourth of eight children,
but the only survivor: all the others die young, six of them in their infancy. So they
form a very close unit, rich in faith and human values, but poor in material things. It is
this poverty that forces Daniel to go away to school in Verona, in the Institute founded
by Father Nicola Mazza. During the years spent in Verona, Daniel discovers his
calling to the priesthood, completes his studies of Philosophy and Theology and,
above all, is entranced by the mission of Central Africa, drawn by the descriptions of
the missionaries who return from there to the Mazza Institute. Comboni is ordained in
1854, and three years later leaves for Africa himself, along with five other
missionaries of the Mazza Institute and with the blessing of his mother Domenica,
who finally tells him: “Go, Daniel, and may the Lord bless you”.

Into the heart of Africa - with Africa in his heart

After a journey of four months the missionary expedition that includes Comboni
reaches Khartoum, capital of the Sudan. The impact of this first face-to-face encounter
with Africa is tremendous, Daniel is immediately made aware of the multiple
difficulties that are part of his new mission. But labours, unbearable climate, sickness,
the deaths of several of his young fellow-missionaries, the poverty and dereliction of
the population, only serve to drive him forward, never dreaming of giving up what he
has taken on with such great enthusiasm. From the mission of Holy Cross he writes to
his parents: “We will have to labour hard, to sweat, to die: but the thought that one
sweats and dies for love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most abandoned souls
in the world, is far too sweet for us to desist from this great enterprise”.

After withessing at the death of one of his missionary companions, Comboni, far from
being discouraged, feels an interior confirmation of his decision to carry on in the
mission: “O Nigrizia o morte!” - Africa, or death.

It is still Africa and its peoples that drive Comboni, when he returns to Italy, to work
out a fresh missionary strategy. In 1864, while praying at the Tomb of St Peter in
Rome, Daniel is struck by a brilliant inspiration that leads to the drawing up of his
famous Plan for the Rebirth of Africa, a missionary project that can be summed up in
an expression which is itself the indication of his boundless trust in the human and
religious capacities of the African peoples: “Save Africa through Africa”.

An original missionary Bishop

In spite of all the problems and misunderstandings he has to face, Daniel Comboni
strives to drive home his intuition: that all European society and the Church are called
to become much more concerned with the mission of Central Africa. He undertakes a
tireless round of missionary animation all over Europe, begging for spiritual and
material aid for the African missions from Kings and Queens. Bishops and nobles, as
well as from the poor, simple people. As a tool for missionary animation he launches
a missionary magazine, the first in Italy.

His unshakeable faith in the Lord and trust for Africa lead him to found, in 1867 and
1872 respectively, two missionary Institutes of men and of women: these become
known more widely as the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Missionary
Sisters (Verona Fathers and Sisters).

He takes part in the first Vatican Council as the theologian of the Bishop of Verona,
and gets 70 Bishops to sign a petition for the evangelisation of Central Africa
(Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis).

On 2nd, July 1877, Comboni is named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, and
ordained Bishop a month later: it is confirmation that his ideas and his activities
considered by some to be foolhardy, if not crazy are recognised as truly effective
means for the proclamation of the God News and the liberation of the African
continent.
In 1877 and 1878 he and all his missionaries are tormented in body and spirit by the
tragedy of a drought followed by starvation without precedent. The local populations
are halved, and the missionary personnel and their activities reduced almost to
nothing.

The cross as friend and spouse

In 1880, with unflagging determination, Bishop Comboni travels to Africa for the
eighth and last time, to stand alongside his missionaries: intent, also, on continuing the
struggle against the pernicious Slave Trade, and on consolidating the missionary
activity carried out by Africans themselves. Just one year later, overwhelmed by his
labours, by many deaths in quick succession among his collaborators, by a wave of
calumnies and accusations that are a bitter burden, the great missionary falls sick
himself. On 10th, October 1881, only 50 years old, marked by the Cross which, like a
faithful and loving bride, has never let him, he dies in Khartoum, among his people.
But he is aware that his missionary work will not end with him: “I am dying”, he says,
“but my work will not die”.

He was right. His work did not die. Indeed, like all great projects “which are born at
the foot of the Cross”, it continues to live through the giving of their lives by many
women and men who have chosen to follow Comboni along the path of his arduous
yet exhilarating mission among peoples who are the poorest as regards the Gospel,
and the most abandoned as regards human solidarity.

The main dates

— Daniel Comboni is born at Limone on Lake Garda (Brescia - Italy) on 15th, March
1831.

— In 1849 he consecrates his life to Africa, thus setting in motion a project that will
indeed lead him to risk his life many times in exhausting missionary journeys, starting
from his first arrival in Africa in 1857.

— On 31st, December 1854, the year of the proclamation of the Immaculate

Conception of Mary, he is ordained priest by Blessed John N. Tschiderer, Bishop of
Trento.
— Confident that Africans will become the leading agents of their own
evangelisation, he launches a project designed to “Save Africa through
Africa” (Plan of 1864).

— Faithful to his motto: “Africa, or death!” despite all difficulties, he pushes ahead
with his Plan by founding the Comboni Missionary Institute in 1867.

— He is a prophetic voice, proclaiming to the whole Church, especially in Europe,

that the hour of salvation has come for the peoples of Africa. Though still a simple
priest, he has no hesitation in approaching the First Vatican Council to petition the
Bishops that every local Church be involved in the conversion of Africa
(Postulatum, 1870).

— With unusual courage for those days, he is the first to bring missionary Sisters into
the work in Central Africa, and in 1872 he founds his own Institute of Sisters
consecrated exclusively to the missions: the Comboni Missionary Sisters.

— His endeavours are great on other fronts too, for example in his tireless struggle for
the abolition of slavery.

— In 1877 he is consecrated Bishop and named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa.

— He dies in Khartoum (Sudan) in the late hours of 10th, October 1881, worn out by
his toils and his crosses.

— On 26th, March 1994, the heroic nature of his virtues is recognised.

— On 6th, April 1995, the cure of an Afro-Brazilian girl, Maria José de Oliveira
Paixão, is recognised as a miracle worked through his intercession.

— On 17th, March 1996, he is Beatified by John Paul II in St. Peter's.

— On 20th, December 2003, the cure of a Muslim mother from Sudan, Lubna Abdel
Aziz, is recognized as a miracle worked through his intercession.

— On 5th, October 2003, he is canonised by John Paul II in St. Peter's.

 Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my

calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. ”Small of
stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of
proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still
loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She
was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one
desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.”

This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at
the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane
Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and
a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love
for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left
in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly
influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further
assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.

At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in
September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto,
in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In
December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After making her First
Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in
Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final
Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that
time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became
the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and
her students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted
for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for
organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with
fidelity and joy.

On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat,
Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her “call within a call.” On that day, in a way she
would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to
satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and
months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart
for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged
her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their
ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious
community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly
two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin.
On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed
through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to
Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she
went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children,
cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She
started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand,
to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she
was joined, one by one, by her former students.

On 7 October 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially
established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her
Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI
in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by
foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and
continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist
countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa
founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the
Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity
Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed
the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths
and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her
apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In
answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi
Movement for Priests as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism
and spirit.

During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the
work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962
and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested
media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God
and in the name of the poor.”

The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and
dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the
surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman
that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to
her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being
separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love.
She called her inner experience, “the darkness.” The “painful night” of her soul, which began
around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother
Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically
participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in
the interior desolation of the poor.

During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa
continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997,
Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610
foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected
successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip
abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her
final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresa’s
earthly life came to an end. She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of
India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb
quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike.
Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity.
Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother
to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of
God.

Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of
holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of
Canonization. On 20 December 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.
Who are the Hellenists in the Bible?
The Hebrews were Jewish Christians who spoke almost exclusively Aramaic, and
the Hellenists were also Jewish Christians whose mother tongue was Greek. They
were Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, who returned to settle in Jerusalem. To
identify them, Luke uses the term Hellenistai.

The 'Hellenists' were Diaspora Jews who had moved to Jerusalem and there joined the Jesus
movement. They were distinguished from the 'Hebrews' led by Peter and companions by
language and partly by cultural legacy. The Hebrews spoke Aramaic, the Hellenists Greek.

What are the beliefs of Hellenism?

Beliefs and practices
It is primarily a devotional or votive religion, based on the exchange of gifts (offerings)
for the gods' blessings. The ethical convictions of modern Hellenic polytheists are often
inspired by ancient Greek virtues such as reciprocity, hospitality, self-control and
moderation.