Mother Teresa. 1910-1997
Mother Teresa was born August 27, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. Her father was a successful contractor, her mother a housewife. Teresa was the youngest of 3 children. Mother Teresa's family was a devoted catholic family
It was her family's generosity, care for the poor and the less fortunate that made a great impact on young Mother Teresa's life. By age 12, she had made up her mind, she realized that her vocation was aiding the poor. At the age of 18 she joined the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto in Ireland. She trained in Dublin, where the motherhouse of the Loreto Sisters was. She chose the name of Sister Teresa, in memory of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. After about a year in Ireland, she leaves to join the Loretto convent in the northeast Indian city of Darjeeling, where she spent 17 years teaching
In 1946, her life changed forever.
On September 10, 1946, on the long train ride to Darjeeling where she was to go on a retreat and to recover from suspected tuberculosis, something happened. She had a life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God. Mother Teresa recalls: "I realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless - to be God's Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity."
"Sister Agnes" who was a former student, becomes Mother Teresa's first follower. Others soon follow, and papal approval arrives to create a religious order of nuns called the Missionaries of Charity.
The foundation is celebrated Oct. 7 1950, the feast of the Holy Rosary. To identify herself with the poor she chooses a plain white sari with a blue border and a simple cross-pinned to her left shoulder.
Their mission is as she would say hen she accepted the Nobel Peace prize: to care for the neglected and less well off, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by
everyone." With the help of Calcutta officials she converts a portion of the abandoned temple to Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction into Kalighat Home for the Dying, where even the poorest people would die with dignity. Soon after she opens Nirmal Hriday, also a home for the dying, Shanti Nagar, later her first orphanage.
Mother Teresa and the sisters continued opening houses all over India caring for the poor, washing their wounds, and making them feel wanted. But her order's work spread across the world after 1965, when Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa's request to globally expand her order.
Whether it was in Ethiopia feeding the hungry, the ghettos of South Africa or it was her native country Albania when the communist regime collapsed, Calcutta's Mother Teresa "the living saint" was there.
In 1982, at the height of the siege in Beirut she convinced the parties to stop the war so she could rescue 37 sick children trapped inside.
Mother Teresa became a symbol of untiring commitment to the poor and suffering. She was probably the most admired women of all time, received many rewards and prices for her outstanding work and she used her reputation traveling all over the world raising money and support for her causes.
September 5th 1997: The world learns that Mother Teresa "Angel Of Mercy" has died at age 87.