St. Teresa of Calcutta

You know her as mother teresa

Early life Born: 26th August 1910 in Macedonia Her real name was Agnes Gionxhu Bejuxhiu ( I WILL NOT MAKE YOU SPELL THAT ON THE QUIZ) She was the youngest child of Nikola and Dranafile. Her father was an entrepreneur who was also very involved in politics.

Early life In 1919, when she was 8 years old, her father suddenly became ill and died. The cause of his death is still unknown, but many theorize that a political enemy poisoned him. After his death, she became very close with her mother, who was pious and compassionate; She instilled in her a commitment to charity.

Commitment to charity Her mother, Drana, raised her to always give to others, telling her "My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others.“ In their home, there was always an open invitation for the poor of the city to dine with them. When Agnes (Mother T) asked her mother who the people dining with them were, she replied “some are relatives, but all are our people.”

Calling to religion As a child, she attended a primary (elementary) school run by nuns and a public secondary (high) school. She was a talented singer and sung in the local choir and often had solos. This congregation made regular pilgrimages to the Church of the Black Madonna in Letnica and on one trip, at age 12, Agnes felt her calling.

Church of the black madonna

interior

Calling to religion At age 12, she felt her calling to Religion Six years later, in 1928, an 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and set off for Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin. It was there that she took the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Calcutta A year later, Sister Mary Teresa traveled on to Darjeeling, India, for the novitiate period; in May 1931, she made her First Profession of Vows. Afterward she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at Saint Mary's High School for Girls, a school run by the Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching girls from the city's poorest Bengali families. Sister Teresa learned to speak both Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and dedicated herself to alleviating the girls' poverty through education.

Mother Teresa

Calcutta, cont. On May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "Mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's principal.

“Call within a call” September 10, 1946, Mother Teresa experiences a second calling that she credits with forever changing her life. She called this a “call within a call.” She was riding in a train from Calcutta to the Himalayan foothills for a retreat when she said Christ spoke to her and told her to abandon teaching to work in the slums of Calcutta aiding the city's poorest and sickest people.

Missionary Mother Since she took a vow of obedience, she could not leave her convent without permission. After a year of lobbying, she was finally given permission to pursue her calling in 1948. After six months of basic medical training, she voyaged for the first time into Calcutta's slums with no more specific a goal than to aid "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for."

Charities She set out to help the poor in any way she could, but had no funding. She began an open-air school and established a home for the dying and convinced the city government to donate to her cause. In October 1950: canonical recognition for a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded with only a handful of members most of thembeing former teachers or pupils from St. Mary's School.

Expansion The first foundation outside India opened in Cocorote, Venezuela, in 1965. The Society expanded to Europe (the Tor Fiscale suburb of Rome) and Africa (Tabora, Tanzania) in 1968 From the late 1960s until 1980, the Missionaries of Charity expanded both in their reach across the globe and in their number of members. Mother Teresa opened houses in Australia, the Middle East, and North America, and London. In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. By that same year there were 158 Missionaries of Charity foundations.

Expansion, cont. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, despite health problems, Mother Teresa traveled across the world for the profession of novices, opening of new houses, and service to the poor and disaster-stricken. New communities were founded in South Africa, Albania, Cuba, and war-torn Iraq. By 1997, the Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members, and were established in almost 600 foundations in 123 countries of the world.

Where she helped 1985 - Ethopia 1982 – Siege of Beirut 1988 - Armenia 1986 - Chernobyl

Her death After years of health issues, she dies on September 5, 1997 at the age of 87. Her funeral garnered a huge outpouring of people.

Recognized miracle In 2002, the Vatican recognized a miracle involving an Indian woman named Monica Besra, who said she was cured of an abdominal tumor through Mother Teresa's intercession on the one year anniversary of her death in 1998

Second recognized miracle On December 17, 2015, Pope Francis issued a decree that recognized a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for her to be canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The second miracle involved the healing of Marcilio Andrino, a Brazilian man who was diagnosed with a viral brain infection and lapsed into a coma. His wife, family and friends prayed to Mother Teresa, and when the man was brought to the operating room for emergency surgery, he woke up without pain and was cured of his symptoms

sainthood She was declared a blessed (beatified) in 2003 by Pope John Paul II In 2016, she was canonized by Pope Francis.