Finding Faith: Mother Teresa's Legacy in New York

Mother Teresa was born in 1910. She died September 1997 at the age of 87. Born in what is now Macedonia, she joined a religious order of Irish Catholic nuns. Later she would ask permission from the pope to found her own her order, the Missionaries of Charity. Her sisters are still doing her work around the world and in Harlem, Greenwich Village, Brooklyn and the South Bronx.

In the heart of the South Bronx, the soul and the spirit of Mother Teresa lives on. These Catholic nuns belong to the Missionaries of Charity. The sisters are devoted to fulfilling Mother Teresa's mission.

Mother Teresa visited the home she opened the South Bronx many times. It is one of 750 she started around the world. The last time she came here was right before her death. On that trip she met Princess Diana.

Each day the sisters rise before dawn, pray and then feed on average 100 needy people in the soup kitchen. Some come from the men's shelter they also operate above the soup kitchen in the South Bronx. All the time these sisters keep in mind Mother Teresa's words.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, as she is best known, was beatified or blessed by Pope John Paul II, the first step toward becoming a saint. Pope Francis took the second step and will elevate her to sainthood. Her canonization comes almost 20 years after she died.

In order for someone to become a saint, the Catholic Church considers how they lived their life on earth and also proof that after the person died they performed two miracles. In Mother Teresa's case, families of two different people with life-threatening illnesses say there were cured after praying to Mother Teresa.

Though Mother Teresa will soon become St. Teresa, she will always be mother to her sisters; women who live the example she set.

Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in 1979. Those who knew her told me she was humble and devout but had a unique ability to convince world and local leaders to help.

Around Christmas in 1985 Mother Teresa opened one of the first AIDS hospices of its kind in Greenwich Village, before most political leaders recognized the problem.

--SHARON CROWLEY

NOTE: The text has been corrected to reflect that Mother Teresa was born in what is now Macedonia, not Albania.