Mother Teresa

By Jacob Arnett

Who she was

• Mother Teresa was an Albanian Woman who became Catholic Nun in the Sisters of Loreto worked to help the poorest of the poor by being a missionary.

Her Birth

Mother Teresa, was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26 ,1910, in the Uskub Ottoman Empire . Although she was born on August 26, she considered August 27 when she was baptized to be her birthday. Her father died when she was eight years old. Her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic after her father’s passing.

Her Charity Started• When she was twelve she knew that she could commit herself to a religious

life. Her final decision was made on August 15, 1928. She left home to join the Sister’s of Loreto. Her goal was to become a missionary. After leaving home at 18, she never saw her sister or her mother again.

• She went to Ireland to learn English which was used to teach children in India. She taught at the St. Teresa’s School. In May of 1931, she took her religious vows. She chose a new name after Thérèse de Lisieux, who is the patron saint of missionaries. She changed the spelling of the name from Theresa with an h to Teresa.

• She was living in Calcutta when she took her vows. She became the Headmistress of the Convent in 1944. Calcutta was touched by famine and civil unrest. There was a famine in 1943 and Hindu and Muslim violence in 1946.

How She Helped• Mother Teresa became a missionary to the poor of India in 1948. She chose to

wear a white cotton sari instead of the traditional habit that nun’s normally wear. She became a citizen of India.

• She originally started a school in Calcutta but soon turned her attention to the needs of the poor.

• In 1950 she was granted permission from the Vatican to create a congregation that later became the Missionaries of Charity.

• Mother Teresa traveled the world to help those in need. She helped to feed the hungry in Ethiopia, worked with those affected by radiation at the Chernobyl disaster and helped earthquake victims in Armenia.

• She ministered to the homeless and the dying. She worked with those infected with HIV and Aids. She worked with those sick with disease that made them social outcasts like leprosy and tuberculosis. She worked with the orphaned and worked to educate children.

Her Mission• Mother Teresa sought to ease the sufferings of the poorest of us.

She wanted to care for “the hungry, … the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”

• One of her prayers was “make us worthy Lord to serve our fellow man throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day their daily bread and by our understanding love give peace and joy.”

• In 1982 Mother Teresa helped to rescue 37 children from a hospital in Beirut. She asked for a temporary cease-fire so that the patients could be evacuated safely.

Recognition

• In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.• She was awarded the peace prize because poverty threatens

peace.• When she was asked what others can do to promote peace

she said “Go home and love your family.” She asked that the money normally spent on the ceremony be donated to help the poor in India.

Death

• She had her first heart attack in 1983. • She received a pacemaker in 1991. • Mother Teresa died on September 5,1997

from a heart attack.

Still Inspiring

• Mother Teresa inspired a variety of commemorations. She has been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures and roads named after her, including Albania‘s international airport. In 2009 the Memorial House of Mother Teresa was opened in her hometown Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia.

Fun facts

• Bojaxhiu the last name of Mother Teresa’s father means painter.

• After she started helping the poor an author later noted “Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa.