Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910 – 1997) was born in Albania, one of three siblings, and was named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father died when she was eight years old. Her mother, though alone, was able to dedicate herself to her children, raising them lovingly but firmly.

As a child, Mother Teresa was fascinated by the stories of the missions to India. She felt a great desire to be a missionary in that country and resolved to answer this call after a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Vitina-Letnicein when she was seventeen years old.

A few months after her pilgrimage, Mother Teresa joined the Sisters of Loreto, an order with convents in India. She was then sent to Ireland to learn English. It was here that she received the name Sister Mary Teresa, after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. In the following year, 1929, she was transferred to India, where she spent several years at St Mary’s School for girls in Calcutta, first as a teacher of geography and catechism and then as the school principal. In 1946, while on a train trip to a neighbouring city to receive treatment for an illness, she felt a call from Our Lord to dedicate herself to those who lived in great poverty.

After a period of prayer and discernment, and upon obtaining permission from her superior, Mother Teresa, in 1948, left St Mary’s School to labour solely in the care of the homeless and destitute persons she found in the streets of Calcutta. Her former students gradually joined her, and with them, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, an order dedicated to caring for the poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa was known for her charity, unselfishness, and courage. But there was another heroic side of this saint that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, she underwent a dark night of the soul, where she experienced a deep feeling of separation from God. Despite this feeling, she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to His work.

Mother Teresa died in 1997 of heart failure after suffering much from several health problems during her last years (two heart attacks, pneumonia, malaria, and a broken collarbone), all of which she bore patiently for the love of God. She was beatified in 2003 and canonised in 2016.