Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 26th 1910, Skopje, Macedonia, Ottoman Empire (Republic of North Macedonia) was the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to help the poor, particularly to the destitute of India. She was the receiver of several honors, including the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace. In the year 2016, Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa as a saint

During her initial days, Mother Teresa was called as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. At the age of 18, she went to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary and sailed only six weeks later to India as a teacher. She chose the name Teresa in honour of the 19th-century French Carmelite nun St. Therese of Lisieux. She taught for 17 years at the Loreto Sisters’ school in Calcutta (Kolkata, West Bengal). In 1946 Sister Teresa got a divine inspiration to devote herself to caring for the sick, downtrodden and poor. Upon her petition, in 1948, municipal authorities sanctioned her pilgrim hostel where she founded the Missionaries of Charity. Compassionate offerings soon flocked to Teresa’s aid to establish dispensaries and outdoor schools. Mother Teresa (as she was now called) adopted Indian citizenship, and her Indian disciples adopted sari as their uniform. In 1950 Missionaries of charity got canonical sanction from Pope Pius XII, and in 1965 it became a pontifical congregation of the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Teresa founded Nirmal Hriday (“Pure Heart”), a place where people with terminal illnesses could die with dignity. Missionaries of charity established several numerous centers to serve ailing people. Under the guidance of Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity built a colony for people with leprosy, called Shanti Nagar (“Town of Peace”), near Asansol, India.

The Government of India conferred Mother Teresa the Padma Shri in 1962, one of its highest civilian honors, as a token of appreciation for her services to the people of India. In 1964, when Pope Paul VI visited India gifted his ceremonial limousine, which she immediately donated to help finance Shanti Nagar. In recognition of her apostolate, Mother Teresa was honored on January 6, 1971, by Pope Paul VI, who awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Mother Teresa was awarded Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979,for her humanitarian work, and the following year the Indian government awarded her the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honor. During her final years, mother spoke out against divorce, contraception, and abortion. Mother Teresa resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity in 1990 but was returned to office by a unanimous vote of the congregation. A deteriorating heart condition forced mother to retire and the congregation chose Sister Nirmala as her successor on March 13th, 1997. Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997. After two years of her death, the process to declare her a saint was begun. On 19th October 2003, She was beatified, reaching the ranks of the blessed in what was then the shortest time in the history of the church. Mother Teresa was canonized on September 4th, 2016 by Pope Francis.