Novena to St Teresa Of Calcutta

The novena to St Teresa of Calcutta — the nun the whole world knew as Mother Teresa — is a nine-day prayer asking her intercession for the sick, the poor, the family, the unborn, and any need we carry, said with confidence to the woman who spent her life serving Christ in "the poorest of the poor." Her feast is kept on 5 September, the day of her death, and the nine days leading to it are the natural time to pray it, though it may be prayed at any time. Below we give the complete novena — the daily prayer and the nine distinct intentions — together with her celebrated emergency "flying" novena of ten Memorares, the short, rapid prayer she herself used when a need could not wait nine days.

A note on this devotion

St Teresa of Calcutta is a modern saint. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 October 2003 and canonized by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016, and her memorial was inscribed in the Church's calendar for 5 September. This novena, then, is not an ancient devotion but a recent one, and we give it in full because it is widely sought and entirely orthodox — its heart is the Memorare and the intercession of a canonized saint. Those attached to the 1962 books and calendar will not find her among the old feasts, and may prefer to keep her memory privately while honouring her two great namesakes in the traditional way: St Teresa of Avila and St Thérèse of Lisieux, whose "Little Way" Mother Teresa loved and took her name from. If you are new to the practice itself, see our guide to what is a novena.

The full novena to St Teresa of Calcutta

The novena is prayed once each day for nine days. Each day opens and closes the same way; in between, you pray the intention proper to that day and name your own request.

Opening — said each day:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Then the Memorare, the prayer of confidence in Our Lady that Mother Teresa loved above all others:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

(Here name the intention you are praying for.)

Many also pray each day the Radiating Christ prayer, which the Missionaries of Charity say together after Communion every morning:

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your Spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you; none of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Amen.

Then pray the intention for the day.

The nine days

Day 1 — For the sick and the dying.

Father, you gave Mother Teresa eyes to see your Son in every suffering face — in the leper, the abandoned, the man dying in the gutter. Through her intercession, teach us to care for the sick and the dying as she did, seeing Christ in each of them, and grant, if it be your will, the favour we now ask. Amen.

Day 2 — For the hungry and the destitute.

Father, you charged us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and Mother Teresa took you at your word. Through her intercession, open our hands to the poor, and provide for all who lack their daily bread. Hear the petition we place before you. Amen.

Day 3 — For the poorest of the poor and the homeless.

Father, Mother Teresa gave her whole life to those the world had thrown away — the unwanted, the unclaimed, the unloved. Through her intercession, make us carriers of Christ's love into every forgotten place, and grant the grace we seek. Amen.

Day 4 — For families.

Father, when Mother Teresa was asked how to build peace in the world, she answered: "Go home and love your family." Through her intercession, bind up our homes in charity, that every family may know that it is loved and know Jesus. Grant, we pray, the favour we ask. Amen.

Day 5 — For mothers, children, and the unborn.

Father, Mother Teresa called the unborn child "the poorest of the poor," the most unloved and unwanted of all. Through her intercession, defend every human life from conception to natural death, and move our hearts to protect the little ones who cannot protect themselves. Hear our prayer. Amen.

Day 6 — For faith in the darkness.

Father, for long years you hid your consolation from Mother Teresa, and still she kept faith and served your poor with a smile. Through her intercession, hold us fast when we do not feel your nearness, and let us trust you in the dark. Grant us the grace we now implore. Amen.

Day 7 — For the lonely and those in pain.

Father, Mother Teresa said the greatest poverty of all is to be unwanted and unloved. Through her intercession, comfort the lonely, the forgotten, and all who suffer in body or in mind, and let no soul feel abandoned. Hear the petition we bring you. Amen.

Day 8 — For sinners and captives.

Father, Mother Teresa's charity reached the prisoner, the addict, the fallen, and the despairing, and she turned no one away. Through her intercession, free those bound by sin and shame, and open to them the mercy of your Son. Grant, if it be your will, the favour we ask. Amen.

Day 9 — For the spread of the Gospel and the joy of Christ.

Father, Mother Teresa wished only to be "a real Missionary of Charity," an apostle of joy carrying your love to the ends of the earth. Through her intercession, make us radiant with that same joy, and bless the missionary work of your Church. Hear our final petition, and grant what is best for our souls. Amen.

Closing — said each day:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of our joy, pray for us.
St Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The St Teresa of Calcutta emergency novena (the "flying novena")

Mother Teresa's most famous prayer was not the nine-day form at all, but a short and swift one she invented herself. Because the Missionaries of Charity so often faced needs that could not wait nine days for an answer, she would pray ten Memorares in a row — nine in petition and one in thanksgiving for the grace she trusted was already granted — and this became known as her emergency novena, or the "flying novena." It is prayed in a single sitting:

1. Make the Sign of the Cross.
2. Pray the Memorare (the prayer given above), naming your urgent intention.
3. Pray it nine more times, ten in all — the tenth said in thanksgiving, before the answer is even seen.
4. Close with the Sign of the Cross and the words: St Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

This is the same trusting boldness that runs through the whole devotion. When a need is pressing and there is no time to lose, the emergency novena leans, as Mother Teresa did, on Our Lady's unfailing help — the Memorare's own promise that "never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided." For another sure recourse in desperate straits, see the novena to St Jude, patron of hopeless cases.

The quick novena for a specific intention

The quick novena is simply the emergency form above, brought to bear on one clearly named need — a diagnosis, a job, a reconciliation, a soul in danger. Some pray the ten Memorares once; others repeat the round for nine consecutive days when the matter is grave. There is no fixed rule. What matters is the disposition Mother Teresa herself brought to it: name the request plainly, ask through Mary, and trust. Because the Memorare is a Marian prayer, this devotion sits naturally beside the Miraculous Medal novena and the honour we owe the Immaculate Heart of Mary — for it is always to Jesus, through His Mother, that St Teresa of Calcutta points us.

How to pray this novena

A novena is nine days of steady, unhurried prayer, and this one is prayed like any other. Choose a fixed time each day and keep it. The most fitting season is the run-up to her feast: begin on 28 August so that the ninth day falls on 5 September, the day of her death and her memorial; some begin a day earlier, on 27 August, or on 26 August, her birthday. But the novena may be prayed at any time of year for any need. Name one clear intention and hold to it through all nine days. Where you can, join the novena to Mass, to Holy Communion, or at least to a decade of the Rosary — Mother Teresa never let a day pass without the Rosary in her hand. Above all, pray in submission: ask plainly, and leave the outcome to God, content to receive either the favour you named or the better thing He chooses to send.

Who is St Teresa of Calcutta?

She was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire, into a devout Albanian Catholic family. From childhood she felt drawn to the missions, and at eighteen she left home — never to see her mother or sister again — to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, taking the name Teresa after St Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower. Sent to India, she professed her vows and for nearly twenty years taught at the Loreto convent school in Calcutta, rising to be its headmistress.

Then, on 10 September 1946, aboard a train to Darjeeling, she received what she always called her "call within a call" — an unmistakable summons from Christ to leave the convent and serve Him in the poorest of the poor, in the slums, carrying His love to the destitute and the dying. After long testing by her superiors and the Church, she was permitted to go. In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose sisters take, besides the usual vows, a fourth: to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." She opened homes for the dying, for lepers, for abandoned children, first in Calcutta and then across the world. By her death the order had spread to well over a hundred countries.

Two words governed everything she did. The first was Christ's cry from the Cross, "I thirst" (John 19:28), which hangs beside every crucifix in every Missionaries of Charity chapel — for she was convinced that Jesus thirsts, personally and infinitely, for the love of each soul. The second was His word in the Gospel: "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). In every wounded and dying body she served, she saw Christ Himself.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was known across the earth, yet remained, by every account, small and hidden in her own eyes, "a pencil in the hand of God." Only after her death did her letters reveal a hidden interior darkness — a long spiritual night in which she felt God's absence and yet never wavered in her service or her faith, a purification the Church has since held up as the mark of a great soul. She died in Calcutta on 5 September 1997. She is honoured as a patron of the Missionaries of Charity and invoked for the sick, the poor, the unwanted, and the unborn, and is a natural intercessor for anyone who longs to love Christ in the least of His brethren, in the spirit of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the novena to St Teresa of Calcutta prayed for?

It is prayed for any need entrusted to her intercession, but especially for the sick and the dying, the poor and hungry, families, mothers and the unborn, the lonely and the imprisoned, faith in times of darkness, and the missionary work of the Church. Because Mother Teresa spent her life serving Christ in the suffering, she is a fitting intercessor for those who care for the sick and poor, and for anyone carrying a burden the world would call hopeless.

When should the novena be prayed?

It may be prayed at any time, but the most fitting occasion is the nine days leading to her feast. Begin on 28 August so the ninth day falls on 5 September, her memorial and the day of her death; some begin on 26 or 27 August. For an urgent need you need not wait for a season — pray the emergency novena of ten Memorares at once.

What is Mother Teresa's emergency or "flying" novena?

It is a short, rapid form she invented herself: ten Memorares prayed in a row — nine in petition and a tenth in thanksgiving before the grace is even seen — for a need too urgent to wait nine days. Because the Missionaries of Charity so often met emergencies, this quick novena became her signature prayer, a spiritual "rapid-fire" appeal to Our Lady's unfailing help.

Why is the Memorare at the centre of this novena?

The Memorare was Mother Teresa's favourite prayer, and she leaned on it constantly. It is a plea to the Blessed Virgin built on a bold confidence — "never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided" — and it is entirely to Jesus, through Mary, that the whole devotion points. Praying it is a way of asking with St Teresa of Calcutta's own trust.

Is St Teresa of Calcutta the same as St Thérèse of Lisieux or St Teresa of Avila?

No — three different saints share versions of the name. St Teresa of Calcutta is Mother Teresa (1910–1997). St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897) is the French Carmelite called the Little Flower, after whom Mother Teresa named herself; you can pray her novena here. St Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) is the great Spanish Carmelite mystic and Doctor of the Church, with her own novena.

When was Mother Teresa made a saint?

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 October 2003 and canonized by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016, during the Jubilee of Mercy. Her memorial is kept on 5 September. Because she is a modern saint, she does not appear in the 1962 calendar; those attached to the traditional books may keep her memory as a private devotion.

Pray this novena with day-by-day reminders and audio in the Iter Fidei app, so you can keep all nine days and never lose your place. Download it here.

Sources. The Memorare (traditional Marian prayer, as in the Raccolta); the Radiating Christ prayer prayed daily by the Missionaries of Charity; Holy Scripture (John 19:28; Matthew 25:40); the beatification of Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II (2003) and her canonization by Pope Francis (2016), with the inscription of her memorial on 5 September; the Constitutions and daily prayers of the Missionaries of Charity; the life and words of St Teresa of Calcutta from her own writings and public addresses.