Mother Teresa

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 Macedonia, the future Mother Teresa was raised by devout Catholic parent in the capital city of Skopje, losing her father at eight years of age to a possible politically motivated poisoning. Bonding deeply with her mother Dranafile after their mutual loss, Dranafile instilled in her daughter a deep sense of charity, counseling her daughter to “never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others.”

An Early Calling

Called to religious life at age twelve, during a pilgrimage to the Church of the Black Madonna in Letnice, six years later, Agnes Bojaxhiu joined the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin, taking the name Sister Mary Teresa in honor of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Traveling to Darjeeling India in May of 1931, Mother Teresa made her First Profession of Vows, before being sent to Calcutta to teach at St. Mary’s High School for Girls, which specifically catered to the poorest Bengali families of the city. In 1937, Mother Teresa took her Final Profession of Vows, dedicating her life to poverty, chastity and obedience, becoming St. Mary’s Principal in 1944, before experiencing her “call within a call,” when Christ instructed her to abandon teaching for the slums of Calcutta, where she would spend the remainder of her life serving the poorest and sickest residence of the city.

Treating the Downtrodden

Granted official permission for her new calling in January of 1948, Mother Teresa donned her now famous blue-and-white sari, before treating, in her words, “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After opening schools for the poor and homes for the dying, in October of 1950, Mother Teresa won canonical recognition for the Missionaries of Charity, quickly growing her ranks of charity givers, initially from former teachers and students from the St. Mary’s School, before establishing a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home and a string of mobile and fixed health clinics in the 1950s and 60s.

Building A Massive Organization

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in 1979, during the 70s, 80s and 90s, Mother Teresa spread her charitable work throughout the world, building an organization that numbered 4,000 sisters and thousands of volunteers. At the time of her death in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had established 610 foundations in 123 countries, making the life and sacrifice of Mother Teresa, a beacon of hope for hard pressed lives throughout the world.