Mother Teresa: Not a perfect, perfect saint

Tens of thousands are expected for the canonisation ceremony tomorrow for the tiny, stooped nun who was fast-tracked for sainthood just a year after she died in 1997, writes Nicole Winfield

WHEN Pope Francis canonises Mother Teresa tomorrow, he’ll be honouring a nun who won admirers around the world and a Nobel Peace Prize for her joy-filled dedication to the “poorest of the poor”. He’ll also be recognising holiness in a woman who felt so abandoned by God she was unable to pray and was convinced, despite her ever-present smile, that she was experiencing the “tortures of hell”.

For nearly 50 years, Mother Teresa endured what the Church calls a “dark night of the soul” — a period of spiritual doubt, despair, and loneliness that many of the great mystics experienced, her namesake St Therese of Lisieux included. In Mother Teresa’s case, the dark night lasted most of her adult life — an almost unheard of trial.