III UNIT 2 – MOTHER TERESA

                           MOTHER TERESA






Early life of Mother Teresa:
Mother Teresa was born on 26 August 1910. Her original name was Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She was youngest of the children of a family from Shkoder, Albania. Her parents were Nikolle and Drana Bojaxhiu. Her father died when Agnes was only eight years old. Then her mother brought her up as a Roman Catholic. Agnes was fascinated by the stories of the lives of missionaries and service. At the age of twelve she decided to lead a religious life. She left home at the age of eighteen and joined the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never saw her mother and sister again. Agnes first went to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Ireland to learn English in order to teach school children in India. She arrived in India in 1929 and started working in Darjeeling. After taking religious vows, she began teaching in the Loreto convent school in Eastern Calcutta. She was very much disturbed by the poverty all around. The famine of 1943 brought about a seachange in her. On 10 September 1946 she felt “a call within the call” and decided to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. She began her missionary service in 1948. She took Indian citizenship and changed her dress pattern. She declared that God wanted her to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross, so that she could understand the poverty of others and help them.

Services Rendered by Mother Teresa:

Mother Teresa started Missionaries of Charity in 1950 to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind the lepers and all those who feel unwanted, unloved and uncared for. IN 1952 she opened the first home for the dying and named it like angles. Mother Teresa next opened Shanti Nagar, a home for lepers. She opened similar homes throughout Calcutta. In 1955 she opened Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, a home for orphans and homeless youth. By 1960s, she opened hospitals, orphanages and leper homes all over India. The first overseas home of this type was opened in Venezuela in 1965. By 1970s other similar homes were opened throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and the US.

Mother Teresa started the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963 and a branch of the Sisters in 1976. By 1970s, she became famous throughout the world as a humanitarian and champion of the poor and helpless. Her fame was due not only to her humanitarian services but also to the book Something Beautiful for God, written by Malcolm Muggeridge. For the poor, the homeless, the hopeless, the diseased, the dying, the unloved, the uncared for, the unfed, the unlettered and orphans, she was the mother. Mother Teresa also started the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests in 1981 and the Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity continues to expand with an ever growing number of services. By 2007 it had 450 brothers and 5000 nuns worldwide operating 610 service centres in 123 countries. No wonder, for all her humanitarian services, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979, and India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980. She was beautified by Pope John Paul II on 19th October 2003, with the title, Blessed Teresa of  Calcutta.