Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje Albania ( modern day Macedonia ) in 1910 at the time of the Ottoman empire. Her name means Rosebud or Little flower. She was the youngest child and her father was involved in Albanian politics but died in 1919 when she was 8 years old after which her mother raised her as a Roman catholic. In her earlier years Teresa was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal and at the age of 12 she became convinced that she should commit herself to the religious life. She made her resolution on 15th August 1928 whilst praying at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Lentoe where she often went on pilgrimage.

She left home aged 18 to join the sisters of lorento and never again saw her mother and sister. She initially went to lorento abbey in Ireland to learn English so that she could teach in India. She arrived in India in 1929 and began her noviate in Darjeeling where she learnt Bengali and taught at St Teresa’s school close to the convent. She took her first religious vows as a nun in May 1937 whilst serving as a teacher in eastern Calcutta and served there for 20 years being appointed head mistress in 1944. Although she enjoyed teaching she became increasingly disturbed by the poverty and horror surrounding her in Calcutta following the Bengal famine of 1943 and the Hindu Muslim violence in 1946.

In September 1946 Teresa experienced what she later described as a 'call within a call' whilst on a train 'To leave the convent and help the poor by living among them' and she was obedient to that calling. She began her missionary work in 1948 wearing a simple white sari with a blue border and adopting Indian citizenship. She received some basic medical training in the Holy family hospital and ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school but soon started tending the needs of the destitute and starving. By 1949 she had been joined by a group of young women who laid the foundations of a new religious community serving "the poorest of the poor" Their efforts soon caught the attention of the Indian officials including the prime minister who expressed his appreciation.

The first year was difficult as she begged for food and supplies and experienced doubt, loneliness and temptation to return to the comfort of convent life. In 1950 Teresa received Vatican permission to start a congregation that was to be called the Missionaries of charity. Its mission was to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers and all those who feel unloved, unwanted and uncared for, people who were a burden to society and are shunned. It began as a small order of 13 members in Calcutta and by the mid 1990’s had grown to 4,000 sisters running orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centres, caring for refugees, the blind, aged, disabled, homeless, alcoholics and victims of floods, epidemics and famine.

In 1952 Mother Teresa opened her first home for the dying, converting a Hindu temple for the purpose and where a dignified death was assured. Muslims were read the Koran, Hindus given water from the Ganges. Teresa believed in a beautiful death. Then a home was opened for leprosy before opening a home for lost children in 1955, a haven for orphans and homeless youth. By the 1960s the congregation soon began to attract charity donations from all over the world that led to expansion in many countries. The first home outside India was opened in Venezuela in 1965. By 2007 there were 400 brethren and 5,000 sisters worldwide, operating 600 missions schools and hundreds of stores in 120 countries. Mother Teresa won the Nobel peace prize in 1979 and 1982. At the height of the siege of Beirut she rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. She went into the war zone with the Red Cross to evacuate youngsters from the devastated hospital.

In 1981 she began the Corpus Christi movement for priests and by the late 1980s she expanded her operations into communist countries which had previously rejected her. She was severely criticised on her firm stand against abortion and divorce and stated that no matter who criticised "I accept it with a smile and carry on working". Being fluent in five languages she began travelling and ministered to the hungry in Ethiopia, the radiation victims at Chernobyl and earthquake victims in Armenia, opening a home at Tirana in her homeland. In 1984 she established her first home in the USA in the Bronx New York, the first of 19.

From 1983 Mother Teresa experienced deteriorating health, suffering heart attacks in 1983 and 1989. In 1991 she battled against Pneumonia and offered to resign but the sisters of the order voted for her to stay. In 1996 she broke her collar bone, suffered Malaria and heart failure. She died on September 5th 1997 aged 87. She was granted a state funeral by the Indian government. She was described as a rare and unique person who lived for a higher purpose by the Secretary General of the U.N. She was described as "the united nations –she is peace in the world". Mother Teresa along with many called to higher service was plagued by doubts about God, suffering many "dry" spiritual periods but still remained dedicated to prayer and practical help for the poor. The beatification of Mother Teresa by the Catholic Church took place in 2003 and the date of her death has been designated as International Day of Charity by the U.N. general assembly. Her life and name have inspired films, train names, a research institute, universities, public holidays, airports, roads, and statues. She is quoted as saying  "By blood i am Albanian, by citizenship i am Indian, by faith i am Catholic, by calling i belong to the world. As to heart i belong to Jesus

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