Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was a Catholic nun who devoted her life to serving the poor and sick. Born in what is now North Macedonia, she moved to India in 1929 and spent the rest of her life working in the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata), where she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation dedicated to helping the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa was widely admired for her charitable work and was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.
Mother Teresa's personal life was marked by a deep
commitment to her religious faith and a strong desire to serve others. She
lived a simple and austere lifestyle, dedicating herself to working with the
poor and sick in the slums of Calcutta. She was known for her selflessness,
humility, and compassion, and her work was recognized and honored by many
people around the world. However, some critics have raised questions about her
management of funds and her views on issues such as contraception and abortion.
Despite these controversies, her legacy of charitable work and dedication to
helping others remains widely respected.
Mother Teresa, also known
as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26,
1910, in Skopje, present-day North Macedonia. She was the youngest of three
children in her family. At the age of 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto, a
Catholic religious congregation that operated a mission in Bengal, India. She
arrived in India in 1929, and began teaching at St. Mary's High School for
Girls in Calcutta.
In 1946, Mother Teresa had a calling to serve the "poorest of the poor" and started her work
among the slums of Calcutta, by giving up her teaching job and started to live among the poor and sick, she started to learn their ways, their language, and their culture. In 1950 she received permission from the Vatican to start her own order, "Missionaries of Charity" and the order opened its first hospice, Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart), for the dying.
Mother Teresa's work rapidly expanded, and her mission opened hospices, orphanages, and leper colonies around the world. She also started schools, soup kitchens, and mobile health clinics to serve the poor and those suffering from leprosy, tuberculosis, and other diseases. Mother Teresa's work attracted widespread attention and she was showered with honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal in the United
States, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.