Prime Minister Edi Rama extended his best greetings to the Albanian citizens and faithful on the sixth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s sainthood on Monday.

Saint Teresa Canonization Day is observed on September 5. Mother Teresa is widely revered as a saint and one of Albania’s most influential national figures. Religious ceremonies are held in her honor across Albania on this day. Mother Teresa had a peace mission, and she dedicated her life to helping the poor.

Six years ago today, on 5 September 2016, Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born Catholic nun revered for devoting her life to helping India’s poor, was declared a saint and is honoured as Saint Teresa at a huge canonization Mass held by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, recognizing two separate miracles attributed to Saint Teresa in healing sick people after her death in 1997.

“By blood I am an 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,” is a quote by Mother Teresa, who devoted her entire life to helping the poor.

Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, who later changed her name to become commonly known as Mother Teresa, was born in 1910 by Albanian parents.  She attended primary school in Skopje and by by age 12, she was convinced that she should commit herself to religious life. Teresa left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, and became a nun. After that she moved to India, where, in 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation.

From then on, Mother Teresa would become a mother of everyone, entirely dedicating her life to the poor. Her Missionaries of Charity grew to over 4000 members, serving the “poorest of the poor” in more than 100 countries all over the world. Mother Teresa never accepted fame. She once said she did everything for the sake of God’s love.

Mother Teresa used to travel on a half broken car to carry out her charity missions. In 1965, Pope Paul VI gave her a white Lincoln Continental limousine he had used during a visit. She auctioned the car off and used the proceeds to start a leper colony in West Bengal.

In her speech after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1979, Saint Teresa said: “The greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other?”

Mother Teresa has been commemorated by museums and named the patroness of a number of churches. She has had buildings, roads and complexes named after her, including Albania’s international airport.

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