Blog About All

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910. She was baptised one day after her birth, to the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born in Chile, into a Catholic family, her father was a businessman who was CEO of a building company, and her mother was a lady called Drana, and she taught Agnes how to be a charitable human being. This would have paved the way for her generous and loving personality.

In 1919, when Agnes was 9, her father died unexpectedly. Drana was left alone to raise Agnes and her two siblings, Aga and Lazar. She worked very hard to bring up a catholic educated family. Every day as a family they would pray and attend church. During the holidays, the family would stay at the Letnice a place of pilgrimage, where Our Mother Teresa was revered.

Agnes enjoyed attending church, as her mother did a lot of charity work, including taking care of neighbours and feeding the locals when they needed food. When Drana could not go, took her place. Draza unfortunately passes away, and the children were raised in the house as if they were family. Lazar won a scholarship in Austria and Aga followed a commercial school. Agnes went to the Lyceum to study. Together with Aga she was in a Choir.

Agnes’ Catholic upbringing provided the foundations for her charitable spirit.

A great part of their time also went to the Legion of Mary. At the age of 18 Agnes decided to be a missionary in India, a decision that would change her life.

On September 25, she left to travel to an abbey near Dublin. While living there, she picked up the religious way of life, and adopted the name Sister Teresa. On the first of December, 1928, she left the abbey to travel to Calcutta. She travels to Darjeeling, at the feet of the Himalayas, and on May 23, 1929 she is accepted as a novice and two years later she makes her first vows. She was then transferred to Bengali, to help sisters in a little hospital that cared for sick and helpless mothers. She is touched by the endless misery which is there.

By this time in her life, she has experienced more pain and suffering that most people would not see in the duration of their lives. This gave her a broader understanding of the suffering and poverty in the world.

Later, she was then called to teach children in Calcutta. At every spare opportunity, she helped take care of the sick.

On the 24th of May, 1937 she made her final vows in Darjeeling. Sister Teresa became headmaster of a school of middle class Bengali girls in Calcutta, close to greatest slums of Calcutta. Sister Teresa thought of it as her responsibility to not let the lives of the people who inhabited the slums waste their lives.

Sister Teresa often worked in hospitals, in the slums, and with the poor.

On the 10th of September, 1937 she left to Darjeeling. She later quoted, “This was the most important journey of my life.” It was there that she claimed that she heard God’s voice. His message was clear: she had to leave the convent to help the poorest of the poor. “It was an order, a duty, an absolute certainty. I knew what to do, but I did not know how”. This day was later know as “Inspiration Day”.

Sister Teresa prayed, talked with other sisters and finally asked Mother Superior, who sent her to see the archbishop of Calcutta. She explained her predicament to him, but he refused to let her. He talked it over with various ministers, who knew Sister Teresa well. They considered the situation, and the bishop told Sister Teresa to pray over this decision for at least a year or to join the Daughters of Saint Anna. But this was not enough for Sister Teresa. She wanted to live among the poor, not just help them.

After a year, Sister Teresa asked again. The archbishop wanted to grant her the permission but decided it would be better to ask the permission from the Vatican and from the mother general in Dublin. This decision took many years.

On August 1948 she received the permission to leave the Loreto community under the condition to keep the vows of poverty, purity and compliance. When she was 38 she gave back her traditional Loreto robe, and changed to the well-known white and blue sari as she leaves her sisters. She headed to Patna to work with other sisters and to become a nurse. Her belief was that she could only help the poor and cure poverty if she was to live among them, and therefore understand them.

Back in Calcutta, Sister Teresa went to the slums to talk with the poor, to help her understanding of their adversity. All she carried with her was a bar of soap and five roepies. Sister Teresa helped with all types of tasks including everything from washing babies to cleaning wounds. Word soon spreads of Sister Teresa among the poor. They become puzzled about the poor European woman who speaks fluent Bengali and helps the people around her. Sister Teresa then moved on to help the poorest of the children to read, write and how to be hygienic to prevent disease and death among the young. She created a routine that attracted more children every day. They received a piece of soap and a cup of milk and came to learn about God.

One day a Bengalese girl, from a well-off family who was a former student of Sister Teresa, confronted her. She asked Sister Teresa if she could join her to help the poor and live with her. Sister Teresa turned her down and told her the reality of the situation.

On the 19th of March 1949, the girl came back with no jewels and a poor dress and confronted Sister Teresa again. She was the first to join Sister Teresa and took her name, “Agnes”. Other girls followed Agnes’ example and by May they were three, in November five and by the next year there were seven missionaries living with Sister Teresa in the slums. The sisters woke early in the morning, prayed a long time and attended mass to find in their spiritual life the strength to do the physical work to help the poor. A man named Mr Gomes offered the top floor of his house to Sister Teresa for her first community. In the same year Sister Teresa officially became Indian by nationality.

After helping the community for some time and watching it grow Sister Teresa thought about creating a congregation. Before she could do so she needed approval from Rome.

Early in autumn the approval arrived and on the 7th of October 1950, the foundation was celebrated in the chapel of the sisters. By then Sister Teresa had twelve helpers living with her. Today, every year hundreds of sisters over the world celebrate on the feast day of “Our Lady of the Rosary the foundation of the Congregation”.

While the number of poor and sick that asked for help was increasing, the idea of finding a suitable house to accept the increasing number of sisters was a real necessity. Later, a wealthy Muslim leaving to Pakistan sold his house and this became the famous Mother house. It was big enough to fit the increasing number of sisters. Mother Teresa went all over the world to help people, rescue children, advise her sisters, to organize and to talk. More and more she was asked to address words of inspiration to crowds. In spite of her age she continued to help the poor people all over the world. In every continent, her organisations were appearing. In 1992 she was prepared to hand over the responsibility but she was re-elected. In 1996 Mother Teresa’s health started to fail seriously.

On the 5th of September 1997, late in the evening around 9.30, Mother Teresa died in the Mother house in Calcutta. Her organisations still go on around the world helping the poor because of the hundreds of volunteers in Mother Teresa’s organisation.