SANTA PAULA

Saint Mother Teresa honored locally

Tom Kisken
tkisken@vcstar.com, 805-437-0255
  • Nun spoke at the college in 1982.
  • Rather than use the comfort of a bed, she's believed to have slept on the floor.

Hours after Mother Teresa was named a saint by Pope Francis, a bronze bust of her was blessed at Thomas Aquinas College outside Santa Paula on Sunday.

Pope Francis waves to faithful as he leaves after a Holy Mass and the canonization of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, on St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, on Sept. 4, 2016. Mother Teresa, the nun whose work with the dying and destitute of Kolkata made her a global icon of Christian charity, was made a saint on Sept. 4, 2016. Her elevation to Roman Catholicism's celestial pantheon came in a Mass presided over by Pope Francis in the presence of 100,000 pilgrims.

The Albanian nun who fed the hungry, comforted the dying and started a religious order, visited the Catholic college in 1982 to give a commencement address.

On Sunday after Mass, the Rev. Paul Raftery blessed a bust that was given to the college to memorialize the visit.

Medals that were blessed and touched to Mother Teresa’s tomb were given to students on Saturday. Called miraculous medals, they were the kind the nun handed out to the poor.

“It was a singular privilege to have among us this Saint of the Gutters, the warmth of whose smile touched the hearts of all who encountered her," said Michael McLean, the college’s president, in a statement before the Sunday blessing.

Anne Forsyth, who was at the 1982 commencement to watch her sister graduate, remembered meeting Mother Teresa.

"She was just so full of joy," said Forsyth, the college's director of relations. "I remember holding her hand just briefly. Her hands were very cold but they were very expressive — lined and smooth at the same time... It was unforgettable."

Forsyth remembered that Mother Teresa spent a night at Thomas Aquinas but did not use a bed. The story on campus is the nun who rejected even the barest luxury slept on a mat on the floor.

This bust of newly canonized St. Teresa, which regularly resides in St. Bernardine of Siena Library, was a gift to Thomas Aquinas College memorializing her 1982 visit.

College officials planned to show a video of the commencement address later on Sunday. That speech is also online at http://bit.ly/2c4OHU8​.

Mother Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican in front of more than 100,000 people.

“She made her voice heard before the powers of this world so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created,” he said.

The saint was also honored in an afternoon Mass Sunday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles where a new chapel dedicated to Mother Teresa was opened.

— USA Today contributed to this report.