Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Albania on August 26, 1910. She was the youngest child of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, who raised her to be devout. At five and a half, she made her First Communion; she was confirmed at age six. From this time on, Gonxha was interested in saving souls. Her father died suddenly when she was eight and her mother had to struggle to support the family. Her mother loving influence helped to shape Gonxha’s character and the young girl was also very involved in her parish. At age eighteen, she entered the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. She took the religious name Sister Mary Teresa in honor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux . After a period of training she was sent to India. Here she taught high school girls at St. Mary’s school in Calcutta. She made her final vows as a Sister of Loreto on May 24, 1937; as a fully professed sister, she was known as Mother Teresa. She continued to teach and became principal of the school in 1944. She was very happy in this work and much loved by her students and her sisters in religion. While on her way home from her annual retreat in 1946, Mother Teresa received the inspiration to serve the poorest of the poor by founding a new religious order. Jesus communicated His desire for an order that would serve the most neglected poor, through a series of visions and interior locutions. After almost two years of discernment and testing by her superiors to see if the call really was from God, Mother Teresa received permission to found her new order. This meant a heart-wrenching leave-taking from the Sisters of Loreto. She dressed for the first time as a Missionary of Charity in her white, blue-bordered sari on August 17, 1948 and took a short first-aid course with the Medical Sisters of Mary in Patna. On her return to Calcutta, she stayed for a time with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, she went by herself into a poor neighborhood, visiting families, washing children’s sores and caring for two sick people she found in dire straits. She continued to the work by herself for a few months, beginning her day by attending Mass and receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. Praying the rosary, she then went to find Him in the most poor and neglected. Gradually, some of her former students joined her in this compassionate service. The Missionaries of Charity was officially approved on October 7, 1950. From then on it spread across India and across the world. Mothers also founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers, the contemplative branch of the Sisters, the Contemplative Brothers, and the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, as well as the Lay Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa was admired world-wide and received many honors, which she only accepted in order to draw more people to serve the poor. She described her vocation by saying, “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.” On September 5, 1997 after years of increasingly poor health, Mother Teresa died in Calcutta; she was mourned and honored around the world, by rich and poor alike, including by her friend Pope John Paul II. Her cause for canonization was opened earlier than is usual after a person’s death, because of the numerous favors reported due to her. She was declared Blessed in 2003.