Mother Teresa (1910-1997), born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje (which is now in North Macedonia), was a force of nature, a true humanitarian who dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor.
Her family were devout Catholics, and by the time she was a young teenager, she felt the pull of religious life, inspired by stories of missionaries in far-off Bengal.
At the tender age of 18, she was off to Ireland, joining the Sisters of Loreto to learn English – the essential language for missionary work in India. And off she went to India in 1929, never to see her mother or sister again.
She took her vows and became Sister Teresa, later Mother Teresa, dedicating her life to teaching at a Loreto convent school in Calcutta. But the poverty she saw around her deeply affected her, especially during the Bengal famine of 1943 and the Hindu-Muslim violence that erupted in 1946. She felt a calling to do more, to work directly with the poorest of the poor. And so began the extraordinary journey that would make her a global icon.
In 1948, she traded her traditional habit for a simple white sari with a blue border and took Indian citizenship, ready to get her hands dirty. After some basic medical training, she headed straight into the slums, establishing a school and then tending to the hungry and the sick.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a group dedicated to the "poorest of the poor" in 1950. Mother Teresa opened her first hospice in an abandoned Hindu temple, a place where the dying could find dignity and peace regardless of their faith. It was named Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). Then came a hospice for leprosy patients, orphanages for homeless children – the work expanded rapidly. From humble beginnings, the Missionaries of Charity grew to become a global force.
By the 1960s, her order had spread throughout India, and then it began to reach out across the world, to Venezuela, Italy, Tanzania, and beyond. By the time she died in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had thousands of sisters working in over 100 countries, running hospices, orphanages, schools, and centers for the poor and the sick.
But Mother Teresa's life wasn't all smooth sailing. She was a staunch Catholic, and her strong views against abortion, divorce, and contraception made her a controversial figure. Some critics accused her of glorifying suffering rather than trying to alleviate it. Her defenders, of course, countered that she offered comfort and dignity where none existed before, and that her focus was always on providing spiritual care to those who had been rejected by society.
Mother Teresa received countless accolades, including the Padma Shri and Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1962, Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna in 1980.
She was beatified in 2003, and in 2016, Pope Francis declared her a saint, cementing her place as a modern icon of faith and service. Her legacy lives on through the Missionaries of Charity and through the countless lives she touched and transformed.
Also see - Interview with Mother Theresa