They are our saints, the ones we expect to be canonized. Though they never directly worked together, each recognized in the other a simpatico soul. Early on, Mother Teresa made a solemn, Albanian vow (besos) never to refuse Jesus anything. Pope John Paul II’s motto for his service as a bishop and then as pope was a dedication to the Blessed Virgin: “totus tuus,” everything for you.

The entire world was their parish. They originally met in Rome, after he was already an archbishop and she had founded dozens of houses overseas for the Missionaries of Charity. Both were notable for their energy. The late pope’s secretary recalled that she visited him whenever she was in town. Mother Teresa’s sisters recalled her joyful countenance whenever she mentioned him.

She just stood on the bridge, looking at the water. The Rhine River is not sparkling and clear, but vast, dark and hurried. It swells along, merely ignoring the bridges of Basel, too important to be bothered. For a long time, she merely considered the complaints that brought her to the precipice.