Mother Teresa: a biography

DRAWING ON THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE
The new constitution of the Missionaries of Charity may have been
polished by the priests of the church, but the document reflected the spirit
of Mother Teresa. In it, she not only outlined why she believed what she
was doing was so important and the specific vows for her new order, but
also some basic rules that the Missionaries of Charity continue to follow
today. She began by stating the goal of the order:
Our aim is to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus Christ for love
by the profession of the evangelical counsels and by whole-
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M O T H E R T E R E S A

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hearted free service to the poorest of the poor, according to the
teaching and the life of our Lord in the gospel, revealing in a
unique way the salvation of God. . . . Our particular mission is
to labor at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the
poor. . . . We are called THE MISSIONARIES OF CHAR-
ITY.
10
Mother Teresa wished to see the vow of poverty rigorously applied. She
wrote:
Whoever the poorest of the poor are, they are Christ for us—
Christ under the guise of humans suffering. . . . Our food, our
dress; it must be just like the poor. The poor are Christ himself.
We should not serve the poor like they 
were
Jesus. We should
serve the poor because they 
are
Jesus.
11
Mother Teresa sought to reinforce the vow of poverty in other ways,
too. In the constitution of the order it is stipulated that at no time will the
Missionaries of Charity own any buildings or other property. Postulants
were to be members of the Roman Catholic Church, which would pre-
serve the very core of the congregation. However, in time it became clear
that because the church was not a strong institution in India, that this
stipulation would have to be modified. Still, the core tenets of the consti-
tution for the new congregation showed the influence of those groups that
had the greatest impact on Mother Teresa’s own life, from the missionary
efforts of the Jesuits who swore devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and
obedience to God, and also to the Loreto Sisters who stressed a similar de-
votion and obedience to carrying out the work of the Lord on earth.
The last matter that needed to be attended to was the question of the
sisters’ dress. Sent to Rome were three photographs: one depicting a pos-
tulant in a plain white sari and short-sleeved habit, the second of a novice
in a white sari and habit with sleeves that entirely covered the arm, and
last a picture of Mother Teresa in the sisters’ dress of white sari with the
distinctive blue border. The new style of dress, while unorthodox, was ac-
cepted.