Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for impacting the world with her pure spirit of humility, service, and love of God. She lived a life in service to the poorest of the poor, the needy, the dying. Her purpose in life was to do God's will and  to relieve the sufferings of the poor. She was especially active in the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. This amazing woman was a humble nun in the Roman Catholic Church. Less than 20 years after she died, Mother Teresa was named a saint.

She was born on August 27, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. Her birth name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. In 1928 she joined a community of nuns in Ireland called the Sisters of Loretto. Weeks later she sailed to India. For the next 17 years she taught at a school in Calcutta run by the Sisters of Loretto.

In 1946 Mother Teresa felt the call to spend her life helping the sick and the poor. She studied nursing and started working in the slums. In 1948 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order of women dedicated to serving the poor. Mother Teresa led the order for nearly 50 years. It opened schools for children and centers to treat the blind, the disabled, the old, and the dying. She received many awards for her work.

In 1989 Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack. Despite her poor health, she continued to work in Calcutta most of the time until she retired in March 1997. She died there on September 5, 1997. When she passed away, her Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 members with thousands as lay volunteers and over 610 foundations that covered 123 countries in all of the seven continents. Pope Francis I declared Mother Teresa a saint on September 4, 2016.

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