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Kavanaugh says his year in India - especially a month working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta - was a transforming experience.

For days, workers had not been able to get him to eat. She immediately went to a man who was very close to dying. She had arrived home after a short trip, and as usual, her first stop was the House of the Dying. It was during this period that Kavanaugh saw Mother Teresa in action. As part of his service, Kavanaugh would wash and feed these "patients," most of whom would never leave the facility alive.

Among them was a Bengali man whom Kavanaugh's transport picked up on his first day of work. The House of the Dying was a former temple converted to a home for women and men found dying on the streets. "She was very business-like, very intense and fast moving." "She was small, but kind of like a dynamo," he said. Mother Teresa met him at the airport and made quite a first impression. So in December 1975, Kavanaugh flew to Calcutta. "She said the last Jesuit who had stayed with the brothers had died," immediately ending Kavanaugh's desire to live the really frugal life of the brothers. "She told me she wanted me to live with Jesuits not with the brothers," he recalled. Wanting to be fully immersed in the experience, Kavanaugh asked to live with the Brothers of Charity, who like the Missionary Sisters of Charity, live a rigorous life of poverty. He wrote to Mother Teresa about spending a month at her House of the Dying in Calcutta. Although Mother Teresa had yet to reach the iconic status she had at the time of her death - she won the Nobel Peace Prize four years later - Kavanaugh still was very familiar with her ministry and work. John Kavanaugh, S.J., professor of philosophy, talks with Mother Teresa in 1975 during his month-long humble ministry in Calcutta, India.Īfter arriving in Bangalore, where he would spend much of the year, Kavanaugh was asked to select a site to spend his month of humble service. He traveled to India where he hoped to get a new perspective on his own life while learning firsthand more about poverty around the world. The year was 1975, and it was time for Kavanaugh to spend year in prayer, service and humble ministry. As the world marks the 10th anniversary of her death this week, Kavanaugh, a professor of philosophy at SLU, recounts his experiences working with Mother Teresa in the mid-1970s during his formation as a Jesuit.