Mother Teresa

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu - Mother Teresa (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/young.jpg)

Born with the name, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, mother Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910. After her father's death her family became involved in the Catholic Church. While yet a youth she became interested in missions and when she turned 17 she received the call of God, and gave her life in service to Him taking vows in the church and becoming a nun. After taking her vow, she joined the sisters of Lorretto. She was sent for a short time to Ireland where she learned to read and write English. After her education she was sent to teach at a Catholic school in Calcutta India. She taught several years yet there was a greater vision within her. Years later while traveling she heard, what she referred to as the "call within the call, to go to the impoverished and unloved people of India." The call became a driving force within her, yet she didn't know how to accomplish this mission. She knew she was to go to the poor and live among them teaching the children and caring for their needs all the while loving the rejected and abandon people of India with a deep and unconditional Godly love, she accomplished a great many things in His service.
http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/

Mother Teresa taught the lost and rejected children of India's slums. She learned a fair amount about medical treatments and helped many by going to their homes and treating them as best she could. During these early years of following the call she suffered great despair and discouragement. She would walk the streets with the poor and often had to resort to begging for food and supplies in order to help others. In 1948 many of her former students joined her in the call. In these years she began to gain the support of Indian officials who helped her to open her first hospice care center. She cared for the dying, giving them dignity in death, despite their religious background. Later the Catholic Church blessed her ministry and it became known as the Missionaries of Charity. That was just the beginning of her long and beautiful life in service to God and His people. With a heart full of God's spirit she proclaimed, "Abandonment is an awful poverty. There are poor people everywhere, but the deepest poverty s not being loved."

Mother Teresa didn't have one place to call her own but made many homes for others. She began to open more houses of missionaries of charity to the poor and unloved. Her home was with the poor, she was literally at home following the call of God on her life. Support for her ministry began to grow and she opened more Missionaries of Charity. Her ministry began to gain world wide acclaim. The Missionaries of Charity spread across the globe. They have provided relief for the sick and poor throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, the former Soviet Union Eastern Europe, Australia as well as the United States. The group has helped countless numbers of people with various difficulties in the aftermath of famine, epidemics, floods and other natural disasters. They have helped the leprous, AIDS sufferers, alcoholics, the elderly and the homeless.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

Mother Teresa gained worldwide notoriety and she won many humanitarian awards. She received the Nobel Peace prize in 1976, and refused to accept the money asking that it be sent to the poor in India. She won other awards such as Pope John XXIII Peace prize. The Pope also gave her his limousine and she sold it to use the funds for a leper colony that she had opened. She received the Nehru Prize for her work to promote international peace in 1972. She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) along with the Magsaysay and Templeton awards.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-bio.html
“I am Albanian by birth. Now I am a citizen of India. I am also a Catholic nun. In my work, I belong to the whole world. But in my heart, I belong to Christ.” Mother Teresa

"Keep the joy of loving the poor and share this joy with all you meet. Remember works of love are works of Peace. God Bless you."

Mother Teresa best embodies the Character of Caring. Yet she exercised all of the pillars of character. She cared for others more than for herself. She always gave everything she had or was given to help others. She became world famous and visited some of history's most influential people yet she still went back to the poor and cared for them with her own hands, never turning her back on humanity in exchange for pride or fame. She is a pillar that continues to influence the lives of the needy today and throughout history to come.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9071751/Blessed-Mother-Teresa