Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje (then part of the Ottoman Empire, now North Macedonia) to Albanian-descended parents Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu, as the youngest of five children. Raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, she was baptized Gonxha Agnes the next day and felt a religious calling by age 12, inspired by missionaries. At 18, she left home for Ireland in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loreto, learning English before sailing to India in 1929. She arrived in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and taught at St. Mary's School for girls, taking initial vows in 1931 and final vows on May 24, 1937, adopting the name Sister Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and becoming Mother Teresa. She rose to principal in 1944, living a life of prayer, charity, and organization during nearly 20 years with the Loreto Sisters. In 1946, during a train ride to Darjeeling for her retreat, Mother Teresa experienced her 'call within a call' from Jesus to serve the poorest directly, leaving the Loreto order in 1948 with Vatican permission. She adopted a simple white sari with blue border, received basic medical training, and began ministering to Kolkata's slums, starting with the dying and orphans. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, an order dedicated to the poor, which grew rapidly with a focus on poverty, chastity, obedience, and wholehearted free service to Christ in the needy. The congregation expanded globally, establishing hospices, centers for the blind, aged, disabled, lepers, AIDS patients, and disaster relief efforts. Despite health declines including heart attacks from 1983, Mother Teresa led until stepping down as superior general in 1997, shortly before her death on September 5, 1997. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003 and canonized her as Saint Teresa of Calcutta on September 4, 2016, recognizing miracles attributed to her intercession. Her legacy endures through the Missionaries of Charity, now operating in over 130 countries.