Mother Teresa Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Leaders Mother Teresa Biography All through her life, Mother Teresa served people selflessly. Read the biography and learn about Mother Teresaâs childhood, life and timeline. 1971 Founder of Missionaries of Charity Nationality 1969 - Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding 1962 - Ramon Magsaysay Award 1971 - Pope John XXIII Peace Prize 1976 - Pacem in Terris Award 1978 - Balzan Prize 1979 - Nobel Peace Prize Image Credit Clad in a white, blue-bordered sari, she along with her sisters of the Missionaries of Charity became a symbol of love, care and compassion for the world. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, known the world over as Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-born Indian citizen who abided by her religious faith of Roman Catholicism to serve the unwanted, unloved and uncared people of the world. One of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century, she led all her life serving the poorest of the poor.

She was a ray of hope for many, including the aged, the destitute, the unemployed, the diseased, the terminally ill, and those abandoned by their families. Blessed with profound empathy, unwavering commitment and unshakable faith since young, she turned her back to the worldly pleasures and focussed on serving the mankind ever since she was 18. After years of service as a teacher and mentor, Mother Teresa experienced a call within her religious call, which changed her course of life completely, making her what she is known as today. Founder of the Missionaries of Charity, with her fervent commitment and incredible organizational and managerial skills, she developed an international organization that aimed towards helping the impoverished. For her service to the humanity she was honoured with Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was canonised by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016. Childhood & Early Life Born to Nikolle and Dranafile Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Mother Teresa was the youngest child of the Albanian couple.

She was born on August 26, 1919 and was baptized the following day as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, a date she considered her âtrue birthdayâ. She received her First Communion when she was five and a half. Raised in a devoutly Catholic family, her father was an entrepreneur by profession. Her mother had a spiritual and religious bent of mind and was active participant in the local church activities. Sudden and tragic death of her father when she was eight years old left young Agnes disheartened. Despite facing financial crisis, Dranafile did not compromise on the upbringing of her children and raised them with utmost love, care and affection. Over the years, young Agnes grew extremely close to her mother. It was Dranafileâs firm belief and religious attitude that greatly influenced Agnes character and future vocation. A pious and compassionate woman, she instilled in Agnes a deep commitment to charity, which was further affirmed by her involvement in the Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart.

Religious Calling As Agnes turned 18, she found her true calling as a nun and left home for good to enrol herself at the Institute of the Blessed Mary Virgin, also called Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. It was there that she first received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St Therese of Lisieux. After a year of training, Sister Mary Teresa came to India in 1929 and initiated her novitiate in Darjeeling, West Bengal, as a teacher at St Teresaâs School. She learned the local language of the state, Bengali. Sister Teresa took her first religious vows in May 1931. Thereafter, she was assigned duty at the Loreto Entally community of Calcutta and taught at St Maryâs School. Six years later, on May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows and with that acquired the name, which the world recognizes her with today, Mother Teresa. The next twenty years of her life, Mother Teresa dedicated to serving as a teacher at the St Maryâs School, graduating to the post of the principal in 1944.

Within the walls of the convent, Mother Teresa was known for her love, kindness, compassion and generosity. Her unflinching commitment to serving the society and mankind was greatly recognized by students and teachers. However, just as much Mother Teresa enjoyed teaching young girls, she was greatly disturbed by the poverty and misery that was prevalent in Calcutta. Call Within a Call Little did she know that the journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling made by Mother Teresa for her yearly retreat, on September 10, 1946 would transform her life completely. She experienced a call within a call - a call from the Almighty to fulfil His heartfelt desire of serving the âpoorest of the poorâ. Mother Teresa explained the experience as an order from Him, which she could not fail on any condition as it would mean breaking the faith. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a new religious community, Missionaries of Charity Sisters, which would be dedicated to serving the âpoorest of the poorâ. The community would work in the slums of Calcutta and help the poorest and sick people. Since Mother Teresa had taken a vow of obedience, leaving the convent without official permission was impossible.

For nearly two years, she lobbied for initiating the new religious community, which brought favourable result in the January of 1948 as she received a final approval from the local Archbishop Ferdinand Perier to pursue the new calling. On August 17, 1948, clad in a white blue-bordered saree, Mother Teresa walked past the gate of the convent, which had been her habitat for almost two decades, to enter the world of poor, a world that needed her, a world which He wanted her to serve, a world she knew of as her own! Gaining Indian citizenship, Mother Teresa travelled all the way to Patna, Bihar to gain medical training at the Medical Mission Sisters. After completing her short course, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found her temporary lodging at Little Sisters of the Poor. Her first outing was on December 21, 1948 to help the people in the slums. Her main mission was to serve Him by helping the âunwanted, unloved, and uncaredâ. From then on, Mother Teresa reached out to the poor and needy each day, fulfilling His desire to radiate love, kindness and compassion.

Starting off all alone, Mother Teresa was soon joined by voluntary helpers, most of which were former students and teachers, who accompanied her in her mission to fulfil His vision. With time, financial help also came in. Mother Teresa then started an open air school and soon established a home for the dying and destitute in a dilapidated home, which she convinced the government to donate to her. October 7, 1950 was historic day in the life of Mother Teresa; she finally received permission by the Vatican to start the congregation that eventually came to be known as Missionaries of Charity. Starting off with merely 13 members, the Missionaries of Charity went on to become one of the most significant and recognized congregations in the world. As the ranks of congregation raised and financial aid came in easily, Mother Teresa expanded her scope for charitable activities exponentially. In 1952, she inaugurated the first Home for the Dying, where people brought to this home received medical help and accorded the opportunity to die with dignity. Adhering to the different faith that people came in from, all who died were given their last ceremonies according to the religion they followed, thus dying a death of dignity.

The next step was initiating a home for those suffering from Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy. The home was called Shanti Nagar. Additionally, several clinics were formed in the city of Calcutta which provided medication, bandage and food to those suffering from leprosy. In 1955, Mother Teresa opened a home for the orphans and homeless youths. She named it as Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, or the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart. What started as a small effort soon grew in size and number, attracting recruits and financial help. By 1960, Missionaries of Charity had opened several hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India. Meanwhile, in 1963, Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded. The main aim behind the inauguration of Missionaries of Charity Brother was to better respond to the physical and spiritual needs of the poor. Furthermore, in 1976, a contemplative branch of the sisters was opened. Two years later, a contemplative brothersâ branch was inaugurated.

In 1981, she began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers was initiated. The initiation of the same was to combine the vocational aim of Missionaries of charity with the resource of ministerial priesthood. Mother Teresa, then, formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. Her International Pursuits The congregation, which was limited to India, opened its first house outside India in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters. However, this was just the beginning, as many more houses came up in Rome, Tanzania and Austria. By 1970s, the order had reached several countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and United States. In 1982, Mother Teresa rescued almost 37 children who were trapped in a front line hospital in Beirut. With the help of a few Red Cross volunteers, she crossed the war zone to reach the devastated hospital and evacuate young patients. Missionaries of Charity which was rejected by the Communist countries earlier, found an acceptance in the 1980s. Ever since it attained permission, the congregation initiated a dozen of projects.

She helped the earthquake victims of Armenia, the famished folks of Ethiopia and the radiation-caused victims of Chernobyl. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1984, it had 19 establishments all over the country. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned to her homeland for the first time since 1937 and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania. By 1997, Missionaries of Charity had almost 4000 sisters working in 610 foundations, in 450 centres in 123 countries across the sIX continents. The congregation had several hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, personal helpers, orphanages, and schools functioning under it. Awards & Achievements For her unwavering commitment and unflinching love and compassion that she devoutly shared, the Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri, Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding and Bharat Ratna, Indiaâs highest civilian award.

In 1962, she was honoured with Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, for her merciful cognizance of the abject poor of a foreign land, in whose service she led a new congregation. In 1971, she was awarded the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." Death & Legacy Mother Teresaâs health started declining in the 1980s. The first instance of the same was seen when she suffered a heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1983. For the next decade, Mother Teresa constantly faced health issues. Cardiac problems seemed to live by her, as she experienced no respite even after heart surgery. Her declining health led her to step down as the head of the order on March 13, 1997. Her last visit abroad was to Rome, when she visited Pope John Paul II for the second time.

Upon returning to Calcutta, Mother Teresa spent her last few days receiving visitors and instructing sisters. The greatly compassionate soul left for the heavenly abode on September 5, 1997. Her death was mourned by the world over. The world has commemorated this saintly soul through various ways. She has been memorialized and has been made patroness of various churches. There are also several roads and structures that have been named after Mother Teresa. She has also been seen in popular cultures. In 2003, Mother Teresa was beautified by Pope John Paul II at St Peterâs Basilica, in Vatican City. Since then, she has been known as Blessed Mother Teresa. Along with Blessed Pope John Paul II, the Church designated Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as the patron saint of the World Youth Day. She was canonised by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016 and is now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Trivia Known the world over as Mother Teresa, she however was not baptized with the same name. Her christened name is different from what she is known as. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta with the objective of serving the poorest of the poor.

She aimed to make life beautiful for the unwanted, unloved and uncared lot. Top 10 Facts You Did Not Know About Mother Teresa Though incredibly close to her mother, she never saw her again after the day she left for Ireland. As Sister Teresa, she set aside her nunâs habit in 1948 and adopted instead the simple sari and sandals to fit in with the women she worked with. When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she refused the traditional Nobel honor banquet and requested that the $192,000 budget be allocated to help the poor in India. The only international airport in Albania, Tirana International Airport (NÃ«nÃ« Tereza) is named after Mother Teresa. As a teacher in Kolkata, she taught history and geography at St Maryâs School. Pope Paul VI came to meet her in 1965 but she informed him that she was too busy with her work among the poor to meet with him. The pope was much impressed with her sincerity. Mother Teresa was strictly pro-life and was against abortion and contraceptives. In spite of being deeply religious, she frequently questioned her own belief in God.

Upon her death, the Indian government gave her a state funeral honoring her work with the poor and needy. She was voted as one of the 10 most admirable women 18 times in Gallup's yearly poll. Translate this page to Spanish, French, Hindi, Portuguese Pictures of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa — Ethnicity of Celebs | What Nationality Ancestry Race by madman on November 9, 2015 Birth Name: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu Date of Birth: 26 August, 1910 Place of Birth: Üsküp, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, Macedonia) Date of Death: 5 September, 1997 Place of Death: Calcutta, West Bengal, India Ethnicity: Albanian Mother Teresa, or Teresa of Calcutta, was a Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary. She has been declared a saint by Pope Francis. During her lifetime, Mother Teresa lived in Ireland and India, and acquired citizenship in the latter. Mother Teresa had said : “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun.

As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of Jesus.” She was the daughter of Dranafile Bernai and Nichollë Bojaxhiu, who was involved in politics. Nichollë was born in Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet. Dranafile was possibly born somwhere near Gjakovë, Kosovo Vilayet. They were both of Albanian descent. Some have stated that Nichollë may have been Macedonian. Others have also stated that he was of Vlach descent. It is not clear if there is any evidence for these claims. Sources: Genealogy of Mother Teresa – Birthplaces of Mother Teresa’s parents – Mother Teresa - The Saint of the Gutters Mother Teresa A Biography About Mother Teresa, the Saint of the Gutters Keystone / Staff / Hulton Archive / Getty Images Updated February 17, 2016. Who Was Mother Teresa? Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic order of nuns dedicated to helping the poor.

Begun in Calcutta, India, the Missionaries of Charity grew to help the poor, the dying, orphans, lepers, and AIDS sufferers in over 100 countries. Mother Teresa's selfless effort to help those in need has caused many to regard her as a model humanitarian. Dates: August 26, 1910 -- September 5, 1997 Mother Teresa Also Known As: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (birth name), "the Saint of the Gutters" Overview of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa's task was overwhelming. She started out as just one woman, with no money and no supplies, trying to help the millions of poor, starving, and dying that lived on the streets of India. Despite others' misgivings, Mother Teresa was confident that God would provide. Birth and Childhood Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, now known as Mother Teresa, was the third and final child born to her Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, in the city of Skopje (a predominantly Muslim city in the Balkans).

continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Nikola was a self-made, successful businessman and Dranafile stayed home to take care of the children. When Mother Teresa was about eight years old, her father died unexpectedly. The Bojaxhiu family was devastated. After a period of intense grief, Dranafile, suddenly a single mother of three children, sold textiles and hand-made embroidery to bring in some income. The Call Both before Nikola's death and especially after it, the Bojaxhiu family held tightly to their religious beliefs. The family prayed daily and went on pilgrimages annually. When Mother Teresa was 12 years old, she began to feel called to serve God as a nun. Deciding to become a nun was a very difficult decision. Becoming a nun not only meant giving up the chance to marry and have children, it also meant giving up all her worldly possessions and her family, perhaps forever. For five years, Mother Teresa thought hard about whether or not to become a nun. During this time, she sang in the church choir, helped her mother organize church events, and went on walks with her mother to hand out food and supplies to the poor.

When Mother Teresa was 17, she made the difficult decision to become a nun. Having read many articles about the work Catholic missionaries were doing in India, Mother Teresa was determined to go there. Mother Teresa applied to the Loreto order of nuns, based in Ireland but with missions in India. In September 1928, 18-year-old Mother Teresa said goodbye to her family to travel to Ireland and then on to India. She never saw her mother or sister again. Becoming a Nun It took more than two years to become a Loreto nun. After spending six weeks in Ireland learning the history of the Loreto order and to study English, Mother Teresa then traveled to India, where she arrived on January 6, 1929. After two years as a novice, Mother Teresa took her first vows as a Loreto nun on May 24, 1931. As a new Loreto nun, Mother Teresa (known then only as Sister Teresa, a name she chose after St. Teresa of Lisieux) settled in to the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata (previously called Calcutta ) and began teaching history and geography at the convent schools.

Usually, Loreto nuns were not allowed to leave the convent; however, in 1935, 25-year-old Mother Teresa was given a special exemption to teach at a school outside of the convent, St. Teresa's. After two years at St. Teresa's, Mother Teresa took her final vows on May 24, 1937 and officially became "Mother Teresa." Almost immediately after taking her final vows, Mother Teresa became the principal of St. Mary's, one of the convent schools and was once again restricted to live within the convent's walls. "A Call Within a Call" For nine years, Mother Teresa continued as the principal of St. Mary's. Then on September 10, 1946, a day now annually celebrated as "Inspiration Day," Mother Teresa received what she described as a "call within a call." She had been traveling on a train to Darjeeling when she received an "inspiration," a message that told her to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them. For two years Mother Teresa patiently petitioned her superiors for permission to leave the convent in order to follow her call. It was a long and frustrating process.

To her superiors, it seemed dangerous and futile to send a single woman out into the slums of Kolkata. However, in the end, Mother Teresa was granted permission to leave the convent for one year to help the poorest of the poor. In preparation for leaving the convent, Mother Teresa purchased three cheap, white, cotton saris, each one lined with three blue stripes along its edge. (This later became the uniform for the nuns at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.) After 20 years with the Loreto order, Mother Teresa left the convent on August 16, 1948. Rather than going directly to the slums, Mother Teresa first spent several weeks in Patna with the Medical Mission Sisters to obtain some basic medical knowledge. Having learned the basics, 38-year-old Mother Teresa felt ready to venture out into the slums of Calcutta, India in December of 1948. Founding the Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa started with what she knew. After walking around the slums for a while, she found some small children and began to teach them.

She had no classroom, no desks, no chalkboard, and no paper, so she picked up a stick and began drawing letters in the dirt. Class had begun. Soon after, Mother Teresa found a small hut that she rented and turned it into a classroom. Mother Teresa also visited the children's families and others in the area, offering a smile and limited medical help. As people began to hear about her work, they gave donations. In March 1949, Mother Teresa was joined by her first helper, a former pupil from Loreto. Soon she had ten former pupils helping her. At the end of Mother Teresa's provisionary year, she petitioned to form her own order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. Her request was granted by Pope Pius XII ; the Missionaries of Charity was established on October 7, 1950. Helping the Sick, the Dying, the Orphaned, and the Lepers There were literally millions of people in need in India. Droughts, the caste system , India's independence, and partition all contributed to the masses of people that lived on the streets. India's government was trying, but they could not handle the overwhelming multitudes that needed help.

While the hospitals were overflowing with patients that had a chance to survive, Mother Teresa opened a home for the dying, called Nirmal Hriday ("Place of the Immaculate Heart"), on August 22, 1952. Each day, nuns would walk through the streets and bring people who were dying to Nirmal Hriday, located in a building donated by the city of Kolkata. The nuns would bathe and feed these people and then place them in a cot. These people were given the opportunity to die with dignity, with the rituals of their faith. In 1955, the Missionaries of Charity opened their first children's home (Shishu Bhavan), which cared for orphans. These children were housed and fed and given medical aid. When possible, the children were adopted out. Those not adopted were given an education, learned a trade skill, and found marriages. In India's slums, huge numbers of people were infected with leprosy , a disease that can lead to major disfiguration. At the time, lepers (people infected with leprosy) were ostracized, often abandoned by their families.

Because of the widespread fear of lepers, Mother Teresa struggled to find a way to help these neglected people. Mother Teresa eventually created a Leprosy Fund and a Leprosy Day to help educate the public about the disease and established a number of mobile leper clinics (the first opened in September 1957) to provide lepers with medicine and bandages near their homes. By the mid-1960s, Mother Teresa had established a leper colony called Shanti Nagar ("The Place of Peace") where lepers could live and work. International Recognition Just before the Missionaries of Charity celebrated its 10th anniversary, they were given permission to establish houses outside of Calcutta, but still within India. Almost immediately, houses were established in Delhi, Ranchi, and Jhansi; more soon followed. For their 15th anniversary, the Missionaries of Charity was given permission to establish houses outside of India. The first house was established in Venezuela in 1965. Soon there were Missionaries of Charity houses all around the world. As Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity expanded at an amazing rate, so did international recognition for her work.

Although Mother Teresa was awarded numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 , she never took personal credit for her accomplishments. She said it was God's work and that she was just the tool used to facilitate it. Controversy With international recognition also came critique. Some people complained that the houses for the sick and dying were not sanitary, that those treating the sick were not properly trained in medicine, that Mother Teresa was more interested in helping the dying go to God than in potentially helping cure them. Others claimed that she helped people just so she could convert them to Christianity. Mother Teresa also caused much controversy when she openly spoke against abortion and birth control. Others critiqued her because they believed that with her new celebrity status, she could have worked to end the poverty rather than soften its symptoms. Old and Frail Despite the controversy, Mother Teresa continued to be an advocate for those in need. In the 1980s, Mother Teresa, already in her 70s, opened Gift of Love homes in New York, San Francisco, Denver, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for AIDS sufferers.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Mother Teresa's health deteriorated, but she still traveled the world, spreading her message. When Mother Teresa, age 87, died of heart failure on September 5, 1997 (just five days after Princess Diana ), the world mourned her passing. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see her body, while millions more watched her state funeral on television. After the funeral, Mother Teresa's body was laid to rest at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. When Mother Teresa passed away, she left behind over 4,000 Missionary of Charity Sisters, in 610 centers in 123 countries. Mother Teresa Becomes a Saint After Mother Teresa's death, the Vatican began the lengthy process of canonization. After an Indian woman was cured of her tumor after praying to Mother Teresa, a miracle was declared and the third of the four steps to sainthood was completed on October 19, 2003 when the Pope approved Mother Teresa's beatification , awarding Mother Teresa the title "Blessed." The final stage required to become a saint involves a second miracle.

On December 17, 2015, Pope Francis recognized the medically inexplicable waking (and healing) of an extremely ill Brazilian man from a coma on December 9, 2008 just minutes before he was to undergo emergency brain surgery as being caused by the intervention of Mother Teresa. It is expected that Mother Teresa will be canonized (pronounced a saint) in September 2016. Mother Teresa - Biographical Mother Teresa The Nobel Peace Prize 1979 Mother Teresa Questions and Answers on Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje * , Macedonia, on August 26 ** , 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun.

From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work. On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI. Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded.

In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch was established. The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers. The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charism in their families.

Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards. From Nobel Lectures , Peace 1971-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. * Former Uskup, a town in the Ottoman Empire.

** Mother Teresa's date of birth is disputed: "So unconcerned was she about accuracy in relation to the chronicling of her own life, and so disinclined actually to read anything written about her, that for many years and in a succession of books her birthdate was erroneously recorded as 27 August 1910. It even appeared in the Indian Loreto Entrance Book as her date of birth. In fact, as she confided to her friend, co-worker and American author, Eileen Egan, that was the date on which she was christened Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. The date which marked the beginning of her Christian life was undoubtedly the more important to Mother Teresa, but she was none the less actually born in Skopje, Serbia, on the previous day." (Spink, Kathryn: Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), biography Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) ï¿½By blood, I am Albanian.

By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus. ï¿½Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming Godï¿½s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. ï¿½God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.ï¿½ She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: ï¿½to quench His thirst for love and for souls.ï¿½ This luminous messenger of Godï¿½s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916.

From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her fatherï¿½s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughterï¿½s character and vocation. Gonxhaï¿½s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved. At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thï¿½rï¿½se of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Maryï¿½s School for girls.

On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the ï¿½spouse of Jesusï¿½ for ï¿½all eternity.ï¿½ From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Maryï¿½s and in 1944 became the schoolï¿½s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresaï¿½s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her ï¿½inspiration,ï¿½ her ï¿½call within a call.ï¿½ On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesusï¿½ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for ï¿½victims of loveï¿½ who would ï¿½radiate His love on souls.ï¿½ ï¿½Come be My light,ï¿½ He begged her. ï¿½I cannot go alone.ï¿½ He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin.

On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in ï¿½the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.ï¿½ After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students. On 7 October 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India.

The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba. In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity.

In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a ï¿½little way of holinessï¿½ for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit. During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention ï¿½for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.ï¿½ The whole of Mother Teresaï¿½s life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death.

Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, ï¿½the darkness.ï¿½ The ï¿½painful nightï¿½ of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor. During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresaï¿½s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad.

After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresaï¿½s earthly life came to an end. She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesusï¿½ plea, ï¿½Come be My light,ï¿½ made her a Missionary of Charity, a ï¿½mother to the poor,ï¿½ a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God. Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresaï¿½s widespread reputation of holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On 20 December 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.

Mother Teresa Mother Teresa Location of death: Calcutta, India Cause of death: Heart Failure Remains: Buried, Mother House Convent, Calcutta, India Gender: Female Nationality: India Executive summary: Missionaries of Charity Celebrity nun who managed the Missionaries of Charity, a chain of clinics in Calcutta and elsewhere, which Mother Teresa perhaps more honestly called "Houses of the Dying." In these facilities medical care was abysmal, even by third-world standards, with limited access to medicine, no apparent interest in pain management, and the common re-use of needles to administer the minimal medicines that were provided. Despite ample funding that grew exponentially as Mother Teresa was idolized in the media, the budget for medicine and especially for painkillers was minuscule, and Teresa herself routinely reassured staff and patients that suffering is a gift from God, explaining that pain in life helps victims better appreciate the glorious afterlife that awaits.

In December of 1984, an accident at a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal released 40 tons of a toxic gas, methyl isocyanate, killing more than 15,000 people and leaving up to half a million people blinded and otherwise suffering permanent aftereffects from exposure and contamination of the land and water. Missionaries of Charity already operated a clinic in the area, but its funding for medical care was not increased in the aftermath of the disaster. Mother Teresa instead made an appearance in Bhopal after the gas had cleared, where she posed for photographs and urged Union Carbide's victims to pray and to forgive the company and its officials. She was an adamant opponent of abortion and contraception, endorsed a mid-1970s effort that forcibly sterilized poor women in India, and spoke out against the legalization of divorce in Ireland -- opinions presumably informed by her own vow of celibacy taken as a teenager. She accepted an award from Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier , and spoke warmly of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha after his death.

She took a $1.25-million donation from noted embezzler Charles Keating , refused to return the funds when their stolen nature was pointed out to her, and even filed a deposition on Keating's behalf when he was later prosecuted. During her lifetime, Missionaries of Charity never complied with Indian law requiring charities to publicly release data on funding and spending. Even as the group's income was believed to have surpassed $100,000,000, it was estimated that only about 5-7% of the funds raised were actually spent providing services for the poor. Health care in clinics operated by the Missionaries of Charity remained substandard even in comparison to other non-profit clinics operating in the world's poorest regions, but for her own health care Mother Teresa routinely flew to the world's greatest hospitals. She died in 1997, and was beatified -- the first step to sainthood in the Catholic Church -- in 2003.

For beatification, a miracle performed after death is required, and Vatican officials announced that after a thorough investigation, they had determined that by praying to Mother Teresa, an Indian woman named Monica Besra had been cured of an incurable tumor a year after Teresa's death. Doctors who treated Besra, however, said that the "tumor" was actually a tubercular cyst, which faded after she received prescription medications. The next step for sainthood requires a second "verified" miracle, which was announced by the Vatican in 2015. In 2008, eleven years after Mother Teresa's death, a man in Brazil with multiple brain abscesses was reportedly cured, after his wife offered prayers asking for Teresa's intervention. Curiously, reports of this second miracle have not (yet?) mentioned the name of the man allegedly and miraculously cured, instead referring to him only as "a Brazilian man with several brain tumors." And the march to Sainthood continues -- now with two certified miracles to her name, Teresa's promotion to Saint is expected in 2016. Father: Kolë (d.

1919) Mother Teresa Biography - life, family, children, story, school, old, information, born, time, year, sister Mother Teresa Biography Calcutta, India Albanian nun Mother Teresa's devotional work among the poor and dying of India won her the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. She is also known as the founder of the only Catholic religious order still growing in membership. Early life Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 27, 1910. At the time of her birth Skopje was located within the Ottoman Empire, a vast empire controlled by the Turks in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Agnes was the last of three children born to Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, Albanian grocers. When Agnes was nine years old, her happy, comfortable, close-knit family life was upset when her father died. She attended public school in Skopje, and first showed religious interests as a member of a school society that focused on foreign missions (groups that travel to foreign countries to spread their religious beliefs).

By the age of twelve she felt she had a calling to help the poor. This calling took sharper focus through Mother Teresa's teenage years, when she was especially inspired by reports of work being done in India by Yugoslav Jesuit missionaries serving in Bengal, India. When she was eighteen, Mother Teresa left home to join a community of Irish nuns, the Sisters of Loretto, who had a mission in Calcutta, India. She received training in Dublin, Ireland, and in Darjeeling, India, taking her first religious vows in 1928 and her final religious vows in 1937. One of Mother Teresa's first assignments was to teach, and eventually to serve as principal, in a girls' high school in Calcutta. Although the school was close to the slums (terribly poor sections), the students were mainly wealthy. In 1946 Mother Teresa experienced what she called a second vocation or "call within a call." She felt an inner urging to leave the convent life (life of a nun) and work directly with the poor.

In 1948 the Vatican (residence of the pope in Vatican City, Italy) gave her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and to start a new work under the guidance of the Archbishop of Calcutta. Founding the Missionaries of Charity To prepare to work with the poor, Mother Teresa took an intensive medical training with the American Medical Missionary Sisters in Patna, India. Her first venture in Calcutta was to gather unschooled children from the slums and start to teach them. She quickly attracted both financial support and volunteers. In 1950 her group, now called the Missionaries of Charity, received official status as a religious community within the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Members took the traditional vows of poverty, chastity (purity), and obedience, but they added a fourth vow—to give free service to the most poor. The Missionaries of Charity received considerable publicity, and Mother Teresa used it to benefit her work. In 1957 they began to work with lepers (those suffering from leprosy, a terrible infectious disease) and slowly expanded their educational work, at one point running nine elementary schools in Calcutta.

They also opened a home for orphans and abandoned children. Before long they had a presence in more than twenty-two Indian cities. Mother Teresa also visited other countries such as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Italy to begin new foundations. Dedication to the very poor Mother Teresa's group continued to expand throughout the 1970s, opening new missions in places such as Amman, Jordan; London, England; and New York, New York. She received both recognition and financial support through such awards as the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and a grant from the Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Benefactors, or those donating money, regularly would arrive to support works in progress or to encourage the Sisters to open new ventures. By 1979 Mother Teresa's groups had more than two hundred different operations in over twenty-five countries around the world, with dozens more ventures on the horizon. The same year she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1986 she persuaded President Fidel Castro (1926–) to allow a mission in Cuba.

The characteristics of all of Mother Teresa's works—shelters for the dying, orphanages, and homes for the mentally ill—continued to be of service to the very poor. In 1988 Mother Teresa sent her Missionaries of Charity into Russia and opened a home for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; an incurable disease that weakens the immune system) patients in San Francisco, California. In 1991 she returned home to Albania and opened a home in Tirana, the capital. At this time there were 168 homes operating in India. Mother Teresa. Dr Comfort Omon-Irabor Aug 15, 2016 @ 11:23 pm Mother Teresa, you will for ever be remembered for your gemerousity and your concerns for the poor. I love her dogedness. Mother teresa was nor distracted with the challenge of loosing her father at that tender age. She was very hard working and prayerful person. She is considered to be brilliant and brave. She stands for what she believes in. She gave her entire life in ty service of humanity. What torched me most is her commitment even in her deteriorating state of health.

She was still able to play advisory role in expense to her health. She gave up her last breath with the challenges of the less privilege in her heart. I love her and would like to follow her footsteps. God give me the grace to follow her example. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:

Question: What nationality were Mother Teresa's parents?
Answer: Albanian