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Mother Teresa, an icon of the Good Samaritan, went everywhere to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor. Not even conflict and war could stand in her way.
(Pope John Paul II in his homily at her Beatification, 19 October 2003)
Family
Mother Teresa Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910.
Her father Nikola, a well-respected local businessman, died when she was about eight years old.
Family
At age 18, Gonxha left home to enter the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland.
Her mothers parting message was, Put your hand in His (Jesus) hand, walk alone with Him and never look back. She never saw her mother again.
Gonxha at 18.
Loreto
Gonxha arrived in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After two years of formation in the novitiate in Darjeeling, Sr. Teresa made her first vows in May 1931. She was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's Bengali Medium School for girls. Among other responsibilities, the zealous young religious took charge of another Loreto school, St. Teresa's Primary Bengali Medium School. In May 1937, Sr. Teresa made her final profession as a Loreto nun and reassumed her duties at St. Mary's. She taught catechism and geography and in 1944 became the principal of the school.
Over the course of the next months, by means of interior locutions and several interior visions, Jesus asked her to establish a religious community that would be dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor and so satiate His thirst for love and for souls.
Mother Teresa: In 1946 I was going to Darjeeling, to make my retreat. It was in that train, I heard the call to give up all and follow Him into the slums to serve Him among the poorest of the poor. I knew it was His will, and that I had to follow Him. There was no doubt that it was going to be His work. But I waited for the decision of the Church.
In her diary she wrote: Today I learned a good lesson -- the poverty of the poor must be often so hard for them. When rounding looking for a home -- I walked till my legs & my arms ached -- I thought how they must also ache in body and soul looking for home -- food -- help.... "Of my free choice, my God, and out of love for You -- I desire to remain... My God give me courage now -- this moment.
Kalighat
In 1952, Mother Teresa opened the first house for the dying in Kalighat and called it Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart). Nirmal Hriday is commonly referred to as Mother Teresas first love and it may also be considered her last love, as there she saw the vision of her inspiration realized. For her, each sick and dying patient was Jesus in distressing disguise and there she could put her love for Him into action.
The home is meant only for the street cases and cases that no hospital wants or for people who have absolutely no one to take care of them.
(Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)
Shishu Bhavan
In 1953, the first Shishu Bhavan opened, a home for abandoned children.
Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things -to love and to be loved. (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)
For me Mother Teresa embodies Christian love in action. Her face shines with the love of Christ on which her whole life is centered, and her words carry that message to a world which never needed it so much.
during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests, and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the vocational aims of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.[
In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients. When Eastern Europe experienced increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake, and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her homeland and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country.
In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia. The citation said that "the Board of Trustees recognizes her merciful cognizance of the abject poor of a foreign land, in whose service she has led a new congregation"
In March 1997, she blessed her newly-elected successor Sister Nirmala as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5th September Mother Teresas earthly life came to an end. She was given state funeral by Govt. of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of Pilgrimage and Prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity.