Mother Teresa Biography
Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Macedonia, on 26th August, 1910. She was the youngest children of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu.
At the age of eighteen she left her home in Skopje
and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns
with missions in India. After a few months' training in
Dublin she was sent to India. In 1931, she took
her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa
taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. From 1948 she
devoted herself for missionary work with the poor. Calcutta
was the center of her humanitarian activities. On October 7,
1950, Mother Teresa received permission from Vetican to
start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose
primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody
was prepared to look after. In 1955, she opened the Nirmala
Shishu Bhavan, for orphans and homeless children.
The Society of Missionaries has provide effective
help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief
work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods,
epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. At the time of her
death, the Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated
brotherhood of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123
countries.
Mother Teresa received numerous awards in her life
as recognition to her noble work towards humanity. These
include the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), the Nehru
Prize for her promotion of international peace and
understanding (1972), Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and Bharat
Ratna (1980).
She died on 5 September 1997. On Oct. 19, 2003,
Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa at St Peter’s
Basilica, in Vatican City. Since then, she has been known as
Blessed Mother Teresa.