The year 2026 is particularly significant for remembering Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a figure who, nearly thirty years after her passing, continues to represent a universal symbol of charity, service, and care for the marginalized throughout the world. Throughout the year, several anniversaries intertwine, tracing the most important milestones in the life of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu—from her birth to her religious vocation, through to her death, beatification, and canonization—ideally composing the story of an existence entirely dedicated to others. August 26, 2026, marked 116 years since the birth of the young girl born in Skopje in 1910, whom the world would later know as Mother Teresa, while August 14th commemorated 98 years since the calling that, while still very young, she felt as the beginning of a vocation destined to change her life and the lives of millions of people. From that moment began a journey that would take her first to Ireland and then to India, reaching Calcutta, the city to which her name would forever remain linked. September, however, concentrates the most important commemorations. September 4, 2026, marks the tenth anniversary of the canonization of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in 2016 during the Jubilee of Mercy. A date that takes on particular significance because it arrives to almost seal a path begun much earlier and officially recognized by the Church through her beatification, which took place on October 19, 2003, by the will of Pope John Paul II, of which this year marks the twenty-third anniversary. The following day, September 5th, marks the twenty-ninth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death, which occurred in Calcutta in 1997. It is a date that today has an even broader meaning, because it coincides with her liturgical memorial and the International Day of Charity, established by the United Nations specifically to pay homage to the woman who had made attention to the poorest the center of her mission. It is therefore not just the memory of a death, but a day that continues to evoke the value of a concrete gesture, of help offered without fanfare, and of responsibility toward those living in conditions of fragility and need. Holding all these anniversaries together is, above all, the legacy of a woman who, despite becoming one of the best-known figures of the twentieth century, built her mission starting from the people the world tended not to see. From the birth of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 to her religious calling, from her arrival in India to the founding of the Missionaries of Charity, up to the last days spent in Calcutta, her story continues to challenge the present precisely because of the radical simplicity of her message. 2026 thus becomes the occasion to remember not just a single anniversary, but an entire human and spiritual journey: 116 years since her birth, 98 since the choice of her vocation, 29 since her death, 23 since her beatification, and 10 since her canonization. Different numbers that, when put together, tell how Mother Teresa’s story continues to transcend time and geographical boundaries, keeping intact the power of an example founded on an idea as simple as it is difficult to practice: to recognize dignity, attention, and care in every person, especially in those who risk being forgotten.
