Kolkata to get country's first church named after Teresa

The country will get its first church named after Saint Teresa in Kolkata on September 4. International timeline withstanding, at a time Pope Francis will declare Mother Teresa Santa Teresa di Calcutta, a few thousand kilometres away, India will get its first church named after the newly canonised saint.

The church will hold a social session on September 4 after the canonisation process is complete at the Vatican and rename Mother Teresa’s Church as the St Teresa of Kolkata Church. Tucked away from the usual hubbub of the city, at Dumdum in north-eastern Kolkata, the L-shaped church will have as its patron Saint Teresa, who has already earned the epithet, ‘Saint of the Gutter’ for her work with the poor and the needy in Kolkata.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta said that the process to rechristen the church will begin immediately after the canonisation ceremony is over at the Vatican. “It will become the first church in Kolkata, and indeed, in India, to be named after Saint Teresa,” he said. The church building itself is modest with an unpretentious faced, signifying Teresa’s life of simplicity, sacrifice and dedication to the have-nots.