Background

Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, Skopje, Karpos, Macedonia, the current capital of the Republic of Macedonia (then a part of the Ottoman Empire). The following day, she was baptized as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. Mother Teresa’s parents, Nikollë Bojaxhiu and Dranafile Bernai, were of Albanian descent; her father was an entrepreneur who worked as a construction contractor and a trader of medicines and other goods. The Bojaxhius were a devoutly Catholic family, and Nikola was deeply involved in the local church as well as in city politics as a vocal proponent of Albanian independence.

In 1919, when Mother Teresa - then Anjezë - was only eight years old, her father suddenly fell ill and died. While the cause of his death remains unknown, many have speculated that political enemies poisoned him.

In the aftermath of her father's death, Mother Teresa became extraordinarily close to her mother, a pious and compassionate woman who instilled in her daughter a deep commitment to charity. Although by no means wealthy, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city's destitute to dine with her family. "My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others," she counseled her daughter. When Agnes asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly responded, "Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people."

Education

Mother Teresa attended public school in Skopje, and first showed religious interests as a member of a school sodality that focused on foreign missions. By the age of 12, she felt she had a calling to help the poor. This calling took sharper focus through her teenage years when she was especially inspired by reports of work being done in India by Yugoslav Jesuit missionaries serving in Bengal. When she was 18 Mother Teresa left home to join a community of Irish nuns, the Sisters of Loreto, who had a mission in Calcutta, India. She received training in Dublin, Ireland, and in Darjeeling, India, taking her first religious vows in 1928 and her final religious vows in 1937. To prepare to work with the poor, Mother Teresa took an intensive medical training with the American Medical Missionary Sisters in Kurji Holy Family Hospital at Patna, India.

Career

Mother Teresa's first venture in Calcutta was to gather unschooled children from the slums and start to teach them. She quickly attracted both financial support and volunteers, and in 1950 her group, now called the Missionaries of Charity, received official status as a religious community within the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Members took the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but they added a fourth vow - to give free service to the most abjectly poor.

The Missionaries of Charity began their distinctive work of ministering to the dying in 1952 when they took over a temple in Calcutta that previously had been dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. The sisters working there had, as their main goal, filling with dignity and love the last days of poor people who were dying. The physical conditions of this shelter were not imposing, although they were completely clean; but the emotional atmosphere of love and concern struck most visitors as truly saintly. When the sisters were criticized or disparaged because of the small scale of their work (in the context of India's tens of millions of desperately poor and suffering people), Mother Teresa tended to respond very simply. She considered any governmental help a benefit, but she was content to have her sisters do what they could for specific suffering people since she regarded each individual as infinitely precious in God's sight.

The Missionaries of Charity received considerable publicity, and Mother Teresa used it rather adroitly to benefit her work. In 1957 they began to work with lepers and slowly expanded their educational work, at one point running nine elementary schools in Calcutta. They also opened a home for orphans and abandoned children. In 1959 they began to expand outside of Calcutta, starting works in other Indian cities. As in Calcutta, their focus was the poorest of the poor: orphans, the dying, and those ostracized by diseases such as leprosy. Before long they had a presence in more than 22 Indian cities, and Mother Teresa had visited such other countries as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Italy to begin foundations. Although in most of these countries the problems of the poor seemed compounded by uncontrolled population growth, the Sisters held strongly negative views on both abortion and contraception. Their overriding conviction was that all lives are precious, and sometimes they seemed to imply that the more human beings there were, the better God's plan was flourishing.

In 1969 Mother Teresa allowed a group called the International Association of Co-Workers of Mother Teresa to affiliate itself with the Missionaries of Charity. This was a sort of "third order," as Catholics sometimes call basically lay groups, that affiliate with religious orders both to help the orders in their work and to participate in their idealistic spirituality. These Co-Workers were drawn to Mother Teresa's work with the very poor, and their constitution specified that they wanted to help serve the poorest of the poor, without regard to caste or creed, in a spirit of prayer and sacrifice.

Mother Teresa's group continued to expand throughout the 1970s, opening works in such new countries as Jordan (Amman), England (London), and the United States (Harlem, New York City). She received both recognition and financial support through such awards as the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and a grant from the Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Benefactors regularly would arrive to support works in progress or to stimulate the Sisters to open new ventures. Mother Teresa received increasing attention in the media, especially through a British Broadcasting Corporation special interview that Malcolm Muggeridge conducted with her in London in 1968. In 1971, on the occasion of visiting some of her sisters in London, she went to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to pray with the Irish women for peace and to meet with Ian Paisley, a militant Protestant leader. In the same year, she opened a home in Bangladesh for women raped by Pakistani soldiers in the conflicts of that time. By 1979 her groups had more than 200 different operations in over 25 countries around the world, with dozens of additional ventures on the horizon. In 1986 she persuaded President Fidel Castro to allow a mission in Cuba. The hallmark of all of Mother Teresa's works - from shelters for the dying to orphanages and homes for the mentally ill - continued to be a service to the very poor.

In 1988 Mother Teresa sent her Missionaries of Charity into Russia and also opened a home for AIDS patients in San Francisco, California. In 1991 she returned home to Albania and opened a home in Tirana, the capital. At this time, there were 168 homes operating in India. Later in 1995, plans materialized to open homes in China.

In March 1997, after an eight-week selection process, 63-year-old Sister Nirmala was named as the new leader of the Missionaries of Charity. Although Mother Teresa had been trying to cut back on her duties for some time (because of her health problems), she stayed on in an advisory role to Sister Nirmala.

Achievements

• Mother Teresa received a number of honors, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She has been commemorated by museums and named the patroness of a number of churches. She has had buildings, roads, and complexes named after her, including Albania's international airport.
  
  To commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the government of India issued a special ₹5 coin (the amount of money Mother Teresa had when she arrived in India) on 28 August 2010.
  
  At the time of Mother Teresa’s death, her order included hundreds of centers in more than 90 countries with some 4,000 nuns and hundreds of thousands of lay workers. Within two years of her death, the process to declare her a saint was begun, and Pope John Paul II issued a special dispensation to expedite the process of canonization. She was beatified on October 19, 2003, reaching the ranks of the blessed in what was then the shortest time in the history of the church. She was canonized by Pope Francis I on September 4, 2016.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve

    (Featuring never before published testimonials by people c...)

    2016
  • Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta

    (During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, M...)

    2009
  • One Heart Full of Love: Mother Teresa

    (One Heart Full of Love gathers together stirring addresse...)

    1988
  • In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories, and Prayers

    (In the Heart of the World is a powerful portrait of one o...)

    2010
  • A Simple Path

    (A Simple Path is a unique spiritual guide for Catholics a...)

    1995
  • Jesus is My All in All: Praying with the "Saint of Calcutta"

    (The postulator for Mother Teresa’s cause for sainthood, F...)

    2008
  • Where There Is Love, There Is God: Her Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others

    (In this book, Mother Teresa’s relationship with God and h...)

    2012
  • No Greater Love

    (No Greater Love is the essential wisdom of Mother Teresa ...)

    2002

Religion

Mother Teresa's life and career, views, and everyday life were connected with being a Roman Catholic nun.

Politics

Mother Teresa didn't tangle in the politics of the day. She articulated her mission to serve by putting her love for God into living action.

Views

In Mother Teresa's own view, the work of her group was very different from that of secular welfare agencies. She saw her nuns ministering to Jesus, whom they encounter as suffering in the poor, especially those who are dying alone or who are abandoned children. In her later years, Mother Teresa spoke out against divorce, contraception, and abortion.

Quotations: "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."

"The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted."

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. Everyone can reach this love through meditation, the spirit of prayer, and sacrifice, by intense inner life."

"[The abortion is] the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between."

Membership

Mother Teresa was a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Sisters of Loreto. In 1950 she organized a Roman Catholic religious congregation the Missionaries of Charity.

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  Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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  Missionaries of Charity

Personality

Despite the appeal of this saintly work, all commentators remarked that Mother Teresa herself was the most important reason for the growth of her order and the fame that came to it. Muggeridge was struck by her pleasant directness and by the otherworldly character of her values. He saw her as having her feet completely on the ground, yet she seemed almost unable to comprehend his suggestion (meant as an interviewer's controversial prod) that trying to save a few of India's abandoned children was almost meaningless, in the face of the hordes whom no one was helping. He realized that Mother Teresa had virtually no understanding of a cynical or godless point of view that could consider any human being less than absolutely valuable. Another British interviewer, Polly Toynbee, was especially struck by Mother Teresa's lack of rage or indignation.

Although Mother Teresa displayed cheerfulness and a deep commitment to God in her daily work, her letters (which were collected and published in 2007) indicate that she did not feel God’s presence in her soul during the last 50 years of her life. The letters reveal the suffering she endured and her feeling that Jesus had abandoned her at the start of her mission. Continuing to experience spiritual darkness, she came to believe that she was sharing in Christ’s Passion, particularly the moment in which Christ asks, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Despite this hardship, Mother Teresa integrated the feeling of absence into her daily religious life and remained committed to her faith and her work for Christ.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was criticized for begging for money from the corrupt of the world, for raving against abortion and contraception, for caring for the poor of Calcutta but not fighting to alleviate the causes of poverty.

Physical Characteristics: In appearance, Mother Teresa was both tiny (only about five feet tall) and energetic. Her face was quite wrinkled, but her dark eyes commanded attention, radiating energy, and intelligence that shone without expressing nervousness or impatience.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Mother Teresa's health problems became a concern. She suffered a heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II in 1983. She had a near-fatal heart attack in 1989 and began wearing a pacemaker.

In August 1996 the world prayed for Mother Teresa's recovery. At the age of 86, Mother Teresa was on a respirator in a hospital, suffering from heart failure and malaria. Doctors were not sure she would recover. Within days she was fully conscious, asked to receive communion, and requested that the doctors send her home. When she was sent home a few weeks later in early September, a doctor said she firmly believed, "God will take care of me."

In late November of that same year, Mother Teresa was again hospitalized. She had angioplasty surgery to clear two blocked arteries. She was also given a mild electric shock to correct an irregular heartbeat. She was released after spending almost a month in the hospital.

Quotes from others about the person

• "She is truly a living saint. She serves as a source of inspiration for me to this day. She is unique in that all her requests for assistance are always approved. No one can say no to Mother Teresa." - Dawit Wolde Giorgis
  
  "This returns us to the medieval corruption of the church, which sold indulgences to the rich while preaching hellfire and continence to the poor. [Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." - Christopher Hitchens
  
  "Mother Teresa of Calcutta actually said, in her speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, 'The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. ' What? How can a woman with such cock-eyed judgement be taken seriously on any topic, let alone be thought seriously worthy of a Nobel Prize?" - Richard Dawkins

Connections

Being a Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa never married or had any children.

Father:

Nikollë Bojaxhiu

Mother:

Dranafile Bernai

Acquaintance:

Pope John Paul II

Acquaintance:

Bill Clinton

Acquaintance:

Hillary Clinton

References

• Mother Teresa: An Authorized Biography
  2011
• Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait - 50 Inspiring Stories Never Before Told
  2015
• Mother Teresa: In My Own Words
  1997
• Mother Teresa: Quotable Wisdom
  2014
• DK Biography: Mother Teresa
  2008
• Mother Teresa: The Smile of Calcutta
  2016
• Mother Teresa: A Life Inspired
  2014