MOTHER TERESA

Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in

other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of

Calcutta.

Although she was born on 26 August, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday."

She was the youngest of the children of a family from Shkodër, Albania, born to Nikollë and Drana Bojaxhiu. Her father, who was involved in Albanian politics, died in 1919 when she was eight years old. After her father's death, her

mother raised her as a Roman Catholic.

EARLY LIFE

In September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling by

train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. “I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would

have been to break the faith.”

She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa

adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital

and then ventured out into the slums.

MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY