Mother Teresa of Calcutta was an Albanian religious sister, who was naturalized in India. She was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje (Macedonia), and was baptized as Ganxhe Agnes Bojaxhiu. She grew up in a Catholic family, and her mother’s deep religiosity awakened in her, at the age of twelve, the vocation of a missionary. She entered the Congregation of the Mariana Sisters of Mary at a very young age, where she began her assistance activities with the most needy. She was the youngest of the children of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, made her First Communion at the age of five and a half, feeling from that day on the love for souls inside her. In November 1916, she received Confirmation.
On August 15, 1928, while praying at the feet of the Virgin of Letnice, she heard the divine call to serve God. On September 26 of that same year, after turning 18, she left her home to enter the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Loreto Sisters in Rathfarnham (Ireland). There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa, and in December she began her journey to India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After accepting her first vows in May 1931, she was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta, where she taught at the Santa Maria School for Girls. In May 1937, Sister Teresa made her perpetual vows, becoming, as she herself said, the “Wife of Jesus” for “eternity”. She continued teaching for almost twenty years, and in 1944 was named director of that school..
In September 1946, during a trip from Calcutta to Darjeeling (a city in the Indian state of West Bengal), to make her annual retreat, Mother Teresa of Calcutta received her “Call within the call” inspiration. That day, in a way she would never explain, the thirst for souls took over her heart and the desire to quench Jesus’ thirst became the driving force of her entire life. Then, through visions, Jesus revealed to her his pain for the forgotten poor and asked Mother Teresa to found a religious congregation dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. It took almost two years of testing and discernment before she received authorization to begin.
In 1948, when she obtained the permission given by Pope Pius XII to exercise her pastoral service as an independent nun, she first wore the white cotton sari edged with blue and left her beloved Loreto convent to face the world of the poor. After a short course with the Missionary Medical Sisters in Patna, she returned to Calcutta where she found temporary housing with the Poor Sisters, in December of that same year she first went to the poor neighborhoods taking care of the sick elderly on the street, visited families, cared for a dying woman from tuberculosis and hunger.
“Who does not remember those admirable images of Mother Teresa with a child in her arms in the middle of the line of fire?” Dominique Lapierre
On October 7, 1950, the Holy See authorized the New Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. This year she also adopted Indian nationality. At the beginning, the Congregation only had 13 members in Calcutta, over time it grew to have more than four thousand members distributed in Orphanages, Hospices and AIDS centers around the world, the congregation offered charity and care to all the poor, blind, disabled, alcoholics, sick, homeless, elderly, etc.
In 1952, she inaugurated the first home where the dying were assisted in Calcutta. In 1955, she founded the institution “Home of the Child of the Immaculate Heart” for all homeless and orphaned young people; later she opened the “Shanti Nagar” center, a place for those suffering from leprosy, all this was possible thanks to the collaboration of the Missionaries of Charity providing medical care and food.
In 1962, she was recognized for the first time by the Indian government with the award “Padma Shri”. In 1963, she founded the male branch of her congregation called “Missionary Brothers of Charity”.
Pope Paul VI during his trip to Bombay (for the occasion of an Eucharistic Congress) in 1964, gifted her with a car which later Mother Teresa of Calcutta auctioned off to raise money to found a site to assist lepers, achieving her goal she called it “City of Peace”.
In 1965, her order began to spread throughout the world, her congregation was established in Venezuela with only five religious sisters and in 1968 it already had establishments in Rome, Asia, Africa, Europe, Austria, United States, etc.
In 1969 she continued to receive notable awards in India such as the award “Jawaharlal Nehru”.
In the 70s, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was already internationally known with a reputation as a humanitarian, defender of the poor and defenseless for whom she worked tirelessly.
In 1971, due to the war between India and Pakistan, there were many violations of women, which is why they committed suicide, went mad and fled, in addition they were prohibited from marrying and having children during that stage. Mother Teresa joined forces with her sisters establishing sites to shelter them providing them with all the necessary care.
In 1979, she received the “Nobel Peace Prize”. And the highest civilian decoration of India awarded to a civilian person, on March 22, 1980 the “Bharat Ratna”. In 1982, she rescued 37 children trapped in a hospital after negotiating a ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. In 1983, she suffered a heart attack in Rome while visiting Pope John Paul II.
In the 80s, she expanded efforts in communist countries where the Missionaries of Charity had previously been ignored, she visited the Soviet Republic of Armenia after the Spitak earthquake in 1988. She also traveled to Ethiopia to care for several starving, orphaned, sick children, as well as the victims of the Chernobyl accident, for which she was given the Gold Medal of the Soviet Committee of Peace. In 1989 she had a second heart attack and a pacemaker had to be implanted.
In 1991, Mother Teresa returned to her homeland for the first time and opened a house of Missionary Brothers of Charity in Tirana (the capital of Albania). That same year, she overcame pneumonia during her visit to Mexico; due to her poor health, she decided to resign from her position as leader of the Missionaries, but through a vote the Missionaries did not accept her resignation, having to continue to lead the order. In 1993 she was hospitalized for pneumonia, and developed malaria that same year.
On March 13, 1997, she had to resign from her leadership of the Missionaries of Charity due to her delicate health and was replaced by Sister Maria Nirmala Joshi.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta passed away on September 5, 1997 at the age of 87 due to a heart attack in Calcutta (India).
On October 19, 2003, Pope John Paul II carried out her beatification in the Vatican City. Saying the following day with deep emotion: “Missionary of Charity, Missionary of Peace, Missionary of Life”.
On September 4, 2016, in the Vatican City, she was Canonized by Pope Francis. Teresa of Calcutta was a saint who transcended the barriers of Catholicism to become a symbol of all cults, she dedicated her life to giving love, attention to the most helpless and humble, her exemplary life transcended all the limits of the world.
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