Mother Teresa was revered as a living saint. She won the heart of everyone through her selfless service to humanity. Once when she was asked about her work, she said,' If there are poor on the moon, we shall go there too.'
Mother Teresa was born on August 27, 1910. Her original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her Hometown was Skopje, Yugoslavia. She was born to an Albanian couple. Her father owned a grocery shop. Theirs was a devoted Roman Catholic family.
After finishing school at the age of 18, Agnes became a nun. Then her name was changed to Teresa. She then joined a community of Irish nuns called the Sisters of Loretto. This community had a mission in Calcutta ( now Kolkata), India. Teresa received training in Dublin, Ireland, and in Darjeeling, India. She took her first religious vows in 1928 amd final vows in 1937.
Mother Teresa came to India as a teacher at St. Marry School at Entally in Calcutta in 1928, leaving her family and country behind and stayed here forever. , She herself went out on the roads of Calcutta and picked up helpless and poor people. She realized that her fight would have to be against poverty, ignorance, and disease.
Teresa took intensive medical training with the American Medical Missionary Sisters in Patna, India. She used to go to the slums reguraly with food and medicians. She gathered children from the slums of Calcutta and started teaching them.
In 1948, Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa and acquired Indian citizenship. The same year, she founded the 'Order of the Missionaries of Charity and established the 'Mother House' on Acharya Jagadish Bose Road in Calcutta, which is still the headquarters of what has become a worldwide operation today. In 1950, the Missionaries received official status as a religious community.
Mother Teresa was moved by the plight of lepers. In 1957, the Missionaries of Charity began to work with Lepers. They also slowly expanded their educational work. They opened a home for the orphaned and abandoned children. They later spread their service to other parts of India and the world.
Mother Teresa started her work with just five rupees. Later, her work expanded to 750 centers in 125 countries. She tried to convince the people that leprosy is not contagious. She founded a Leprosy Ashram at Titagragh and named it after Mahatma Gandhi. She founded 'Nirmol Hridoy'(home for the sick and dying),' Shishu Bhavan'( home for the disabled and mentally challenged children), and many other organizations to serve humanity.
In 1970, Mother Teresa's group opened branches in Jordan (Amman), England( London), and United States ( Harlem, New York city). More than 1,000 nuns of her group, the Missionaries of Charity, operated 60 centers in Calcutta and more than 200 centers worldwide.
In 1971, she opened a Home for Women in Bangladesh. These women had been raped by soldiers of Pakistan during the war. In 1998. Mother sent her Missionaries of Charity to rusia. They also opened a home for AIDS patients in San Francisco and other places. These centers provide education and medical aid to people suffering from fatal diseases. Throughout her life, she cared for the destitute and dying. She showed how faith and compassion lend meaning to such missions.
Mother Teresa received many national awards and international awards. Her noble service gave her recognition all over the world. In 1962, she got the Ramon Magsaysay Award instituted by the Malaysian Government. . The same year, she was conferred the Padma Shri by the Indian Government. The same year, when Pope paul VI visited India, he gave her his ceremonial Limousine. But she raffled it to bring finance for her leper colony.
Mother Teresa recieved many national awards, too, in recognition of her apostolate. On January 6, 1971, she was awarded the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. In 1972, she recieved the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Peace. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna in 1980.
Mother believed that life is a mission to serve the suffering humanity. When once asked how the service to humanity would continue after her -she replied," I have done for God, to God, and with God, and it is God's work. He is perfectly capable of finding someone when I am gone, somebody who is even smarter." Mother passes away on September 5, 1997, in Calcutta. Her holy body was buried in the Mother House, the headquarters of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity.
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