Champions of Charity: Mother Teresa and the Knights of Columbus

Sept. 1, 2022

By Columbia staff

Sept. 1, 2022

Artist Chas Fagan and Patrick Kelly, join two Missionaries of Charity to unveil the painting. — Artist Chas Fagan and Patrick Kelly, then executive director of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, join two Missionaries of Charity to unveil the portrait of Mother Teresa painting commissioned by the Knights of Columbus in 2016. (Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives)

Mother Teresa of Calcutta knew she could turn to the Knights of Columbus when she needed assistance with various needs and projects. However, more than financial donations from the Order, she wanted its members, like her own Missionaries of Charity, to serve Christ by serving the poorest of the poor.

“Send us your Knights and their families. Let them help us with the soup kitchens and our work,” she told then-Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant in 1987, after turning down a monthly stipend that she feared would make her sisters too dependent on regular support rather than God’s providence. From these words was born Operation Share, an Orderwide program to collaborate with Missionaries of Charity in their many apostolates.

Mother Teresa did accept Supreme Knight Dechant’s offer the following year to print the constitutions of the Missionaries of Charity at the K of C printing plant. But her personal approach was again evident: She insisted on delivering the document by hand to Supreme Council headquarters in New Haven, Conn., after which she gave an impromptu speech to nearly 600 employees.

“This is such a small thing, but I ask: Where does that love begin in your own life, in your own family? You know that families that pray together, stay together,” she said. “Come and see, do not be afraid to share that joy of loving. … Let love begin at home.”

Mother Teresa spoke to Knights again in 1992, when she accepted the Order’s inaugural Gaudium et Spes Award — its highest honor — at the 110th Supreme Convention in New York City.

“Holiness is not the luxury of the few. It is a simple duty for you and for me,” she told the delegates. “This is my prayer for you, that you grow in holiness, to want that love for one another and that you share this love with all you meet.”

Since Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, the Knights of Columbus has continued its support for projects of the Missionaries of Charity, including the printing and shipping of numerous copies of their prayer book and hymnal, prayer cards, and volumes of Mother Teresa’s letters and instructions to her congregation.

In January 2016, the Supreme Council commissioned a portrait of Mother Teresa, by artist Chas Fagan, as a gift to the Missionaries of Charity. Later that year, it became the official portrait for her canonization, and the Order printed 1 million prayer cards featuring the image.

A Holy Names sister instructs students at St. Mary’s Academy & College in Portland, Ore., circa 1915.

Champions of Charity: Mother Teresa and the Knights of Columbus

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