Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 27, 1910 to Nikloa Bojaxhiu and wife Drana. Mother Teresa had been given the name, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She lived in the Macedonian town of Skopje, which is now part of Yugoslavia. Agnes’s parents were deeply religious. They gave their money to the church, had their daughters participate in the choir, and taught their children everything about the catholic faith. Then in 1919, Nikola Bojaxhiu (father) suddenly died. Drana (mother) found herself in need of money and the need to support, then nine children and two older children: Lazar, eleven, and Aga, fourteen. Drana became a seamstress making dresses for the wealthy. Although this impacted the family greatly, Drana took the time to show her children any public acts of kindness toward the poor were acts of charity. She reminded them, “When you do good, do it without display, as if you were tossing a pebble into the sea.” This simple phrase convinced Agnes that charity meant caring for others. Eventually, Agnes made the decision to leave home and to become a nun. She was only eighteen.

Agnes left her hometown and traveled to the Loreto Abbey in Dublin, Ireland. Another girl named Betika Kajnc, who also accepted the Order of Loreto, joined her. Their main reason for staying at the Abbey was to learn English so that they would be able to teach the children in India. Most important of all, they learned the meaning of silence. Silence was expected at the dinner table and "Great Silence" was expected from bedtime to morning. Sound could be heard when the girls came together to hear mass and take Communion. It was at the Loreto Abbey that Agnes took a new name, Mary Teresa of the Child Jesus. Her friend took Mary Magdalene. Now these two friends were ready to take on new lives as Catholic sisters.

In January 1929, the two sisters finally arrived in India. They had improved their English and learned Hindi and Bengali, the two major languages of the area around Calcutta. Two years later, Mary Teresa took her first vows as a sister of Loreto. She pledged herself to a life of poverty, purity, and obedience. Sister Teresa was given the privilege of teaching the rich, but in the slums of Calcutta. Then, in May 1937, Sister Teresa took her final vows as a sister, accompanied by her friend Sister Mary Magdalene. Soon, the Head (principal) of the school retired, giving Sister Teresa a new job and a new name, “Mother Teresa.”

From that point on, Mother Teresa left the Loreto Order and treated the slum’s poor. She opened up her own order called, “The Missionaries of Charity.” Mother Teresa also opened orphanages and homes for the sick and dying. She was able to meet Pope John Paul the II and receive the Nobel Peace Prize all before she passed on and went home to Christ on September 5, 1997