April 25, 2011

Advice from Mother Teresa on Class Day 1982 at Harvard

The class of 1982 hears from "the angel of Calcutta."

**Mother Teresa delivers the Commencement address at Harvard University on June 10, 1982** | Photograph by Joe Wrinn/Harvard News Office

Some senior classes opt for levity, or substance cloaked in levity, from their Class Day guest speaker. The class of 1982 chose to hear a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who may one day be named a saint. Mother Teresa, who founded the Society of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950, urged her audience to work for Jesus and to live virtuous lives themselves, and received a long, standing ovation from the unusually large crowd in Tercentenary Theatre.

For more on Mother Teresa’s speech, see this PDF from the July-August 1982 issue.

A transcription of the speech has been posted by Saint Catherine Labouré Church in San Diego.

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