Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian Catholic nun who dedicated her life to helping the poorest and most marginalized in society. She founded the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, and under her leadership, the congregation expanded to more than 130 countries. Mother Teresa received several international awards for her humanitarian work, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.
Family life
Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, present-day capital of Macedonia, as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was the second of three children of Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, an Albanian Catholic family. At the age of 18, she decided to enter the monastery of the Missionaries of Loreto in Ireland to become a religious. After completing her training, she was sent to India, where she took the name Teresa and began working in a girls’ school in Calcutta. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity to dedicate herself to helping the poorest in the city. Despite her dedication to her work, Mother Teresa always maintained a close relationship with her family, especially her mother and sister.
Missions of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, with the aim of helping the poorest and most marginalized in society, especially the sick, the dying and the inhabitants of the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta, India. The congregation expanded rapidly, and as missionaries joined the congregation, they began working in other countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Tanzania, Mexico, and Zimbabwe.
The Missionaries of Charity dedicated themselves to providing medical care, food aid, shelter and education to those most in need. They also specialized in caring for leprosy and HIV/AIDS sufferers, and established orphanages, nursing homes, and other institutions to help the most vulnerable.
In addition to her efforts to improve the living conditions of the poor, Mother Teresa also strove to promote peace and tolerance globally. He often met with political, religious and business leaders to discuss how they could collaborate to improve the living conditions of people in need.
Nobel Peace Prize
Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her “consistent and selfless humanitarian work on behalf of the most disadvantaged.” The award committee noted that Mother Teresa had dedicated her life to “giving comfort and help to the marginalized and dying” and that she had managed to “create a vast network of humanitarian services” through her congregation, the Missionaries of Charity.
The award was presented at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, in December of that year. Mother Teresa accepted the award on behalf of “the poor, the dispossessed, the dying and the marginalized,” and used her speech to draw attention to the importance of charity and service to others. From that moment on, his fame and work became even better known worldwide.
Miracles of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016, and is believed to have performed several miracles during her lifetime. One of the most well-known cases is that of an Indian woman named Monica Besra, who claimed to have been cured of an abdominal tumor after receiving a medal blessed by Mother Teresa. Another case is that of the Indian boy, Pradip Singh, who claimed to have been cured of a serious brain disease after his mother put a photograph of Mother Teresa on his bed.
However, some have questioned these reports, and some doctors have claimed that the cures could have been the result of regular medical treatments. It is important to note that, in order to be canonized, the Catholic Church requires that two miracles have been performed through the intercession of the person in question, and these miracles have been investigated and verified by medical experts and theologians before being accepted as such.
