Virgin – Founder of the Missionaries of Charity
πͺΆ Birth Name: AnjezΓ« Gonxhe Bojaxhiu
π Born: 26 August 1910, ΓskΓΌp, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
✝️ Died: 5 September 1997 (aged 87), Calcutta, West Bengal, India
π Venerated in: Catholic Church
π Beatified: 19 October 2003, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
π Canonized: 4 September 2016, Vatican City by Pope Francis
⛪ Major Shrine: Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta, India
π Feast Day: 5 September
π Attributes: Religious habit, Rosary
π‘️ Patronage: World Youth Day, Missionaries of Charity, Archdiocese of Calcutta (co-patron)
π©π§π¦ Titles & Religious Life:
• Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity (1950–1997)
• Sisters of Loreto (1928–1948)
• Missionaries of Charity (1950–1997)
• Successor: Sr. Nirmala Joshi, MC
π Nationality & Citizenship:
Ottoman subject (1910–1912); Serbian subject (1912–1915); Bulgarian subject (1915–1918);
Yugoslavian (1918–1948); British subject (1948–1950); Indian citizen (1950–1997);
Honorary Albanian (1991–1997); Honorary American (1996)
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Mother Teresa, born AnjezΓ« Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, and canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century. Known globally for her unwavering dedication to serving "the poorest of the poor," she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation that grew into a worldwide network of aid for the destitute, sick, and dying. Her life was marked by profound faith, humanitarian achievements, international acclaim, and notable controversies. Drawing from comprehensive historical records, including her own writings, biographies, and Vatican documents, this biography covers her early life, religious vocation, charitable work, health struggles, honors, criticisms, spiritual journey, canonization, and enduring legacy. All details are based on verified facts up to the present knowledge as of 2025.
Early Life and Family
AnjezΓ« Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire's Kosovo Vilayet (now the capital of North Macedonia). Her birth name, AnjezΓ« (a cognate of Agnes), and Gonxhe (meaning "flower bud" or "rosebud" in Albanian), reflected her Albanian heritage. She was the youngest of three surviving children in a devout Roman Catholic family of Kosovar Albanian descent. Her father, NikollΓ« (Nikola) Bojaxhiu, was a prosperous merchant, pharmacist, and entrepreneur involved in local politics, advocating for Albanian independence. He was born in Prizren (modern Kosovo) and hailed from the Mirdita region of Albania. Her mother, Dranafile (Drana) Bojaxhiu (nΓ©e Bernai), was a homemaker believed to be from a village near Gjakova, possibly Bishtazhin. The family lived comfortably in Skopje, where NikollΓ« owned property and was active in the Albanian community.
AnjezΓ« was baptized on August 27, 1910, the day after her birth, and she later regarded this date as her "true birthday." Tragedy struck in 1919 when NikollΓ« died suddenly at age 45, possibly poisoned by Serbian agents after attending a political meeting in Belgrade amid rising ethnic tensions. His death left the family in financial hardship, forcing Drana to support them through embroidery and sewing. Despite this, Drana instilled strong Catholic values, regularly attending Mass, praying the Rosary, and involving her children in charitable acts, such as feeding the poor at their home. AnjezΓ« attended a state school and was active in the Sodality of the Children of Mary, a Jesuit youth group.
From a young age, AnjezΓ« was fascinated by missionary stories, particularly those from Bengal (modern India and Bangladesh). By age 12, inspired by Jesuit missionaries' accounts during a parish mission, she felt a calling to religious life. Her resolve deepened on August 15, 1928, during a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Black Madonna of Vitina-Letnice in Kosovo, where she prayed for guidance. At 18, on September 26, 1928, she left Skopje for Ireland, joining the Sisters of Loreto (Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary) at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Dublin. She never saw her mother or sister again, as Albania's communist regime under Enver Hoxha (1944–1985) labeled her a "Vatican agent" and denied her visas. Her family relocated to Tirana in 1934. Drana and her sister Aga died during Hoxha's rule, and AnjezΓ« could only visit Albania in 1989, after the regime's collapse. She once tearfully lamented at an Albanian embassy: "Dear God, I can understand and accept that I should suffer, but it is so hard to understand and accept why my mother has to suffer. In her old age she has no other wish than to see us one last time."
Religious Vocation and "Call Within the Call"
Anjezë arrived in India on January 6, 1929, aboard the SS Marcha, and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, in the foothills of the Himalayas. There, she learned Bengali and taught at St. Teresa's School, a Loreto-run institution near the convent. On May 24, 1931, she took her first religious vows as a nun, adopting the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the patroness of missionaries (using the Spanish spelling "Teresa" because another nun had chosen Thérèse). She was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta (now Kolkata), where she taught geography and history at St. Mary's High School for girls from 1931 to 1948. Known for her kindness and discipline, she became the school's principal in 1944.
Life in Calcutta exposed her to extreme poverty, especially during the Bengal Famine of 1943, which killed millions, and the communal riots following Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946, which led to widespread violence between Hindus and Muslims. These events profoundly affected her. On September 10, 1946, while traveling by train to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, she experienced a mystical "call within the call." She described it as a divine command from Jesus: "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." Joseph Langford, founder of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, later noted, "Though no one knew it at the time, Sister Teresa had just become Mother Teresa."
With permission from her superiors and the Archbishop of Calcutta, Ferdinand PΓ©rier, she left the Loreto convent on August 17, 1948. Adopting Indian citizenship, she underwent basic medical training at Holy Family Hospital in Patna for three months, then returned to Calcutta, donning a simple white cotton sari with blue borders (symbolizing purity and the Virgin Mary) as her new habit. Living in poverty, she started an open-air school for slum children in Motijhil and begged for food and supplies, facing initial hardships, doubt, and temptation to return to convent life. In her diary, she wrote: "Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today, I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard."
Founding and Expansion of the Missionaries of Charity
On October 7, 1950, after Vatican approval, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity as a diocesan congregation in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Its mission was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society." Starting with 12 members (former students and teachers from St. Mary's), the order required vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and a fourth vow: "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."
In 1952, with help from Indian officials, she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart), the Kalighat Home for the Dying, where the terminally ill received medical care and died with dignity according to their faith—Muslims reading the Quran, Hindus receiving Ganges water, Catholics given last rites. She called it "a beautiful death... for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted." In 1955, she opened Nirmala Shishu Bhavan (Immaculate Heart Home for Children) for orphans and homeless youth. By the late 1950s, the order established leprosy outreach clinics, including Shanti Nagar (City of Peace), providing medication and food.
The congregation expanded rapidly. In 1963, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers; in 1976, a contemplative branch of the Sisters; in 1981, the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests; and in 1984, the Missionaries of Charity Fathers with Joseph Langford. Lay branches included the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. Internationally, the first house opened in Venezuela in 1965, followed by Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968. By the 1970s, missions spanned Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States (first in the South Bronx in 1984). At her death in 1997, the order had over 4,000 sisters, 450 brothers, and operated 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices for HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis patients, soup kitchens, orphanages, schools, and disaster relief efforts. As of 2025, it continues to grow, with thousands of members worldwide.
International Charity Efforts
Mother Teresa's work transcended India, embodying her self-description: "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." Fluent in five languages (Albanian, Bengali, English, Hindi, Serbo-Croatian), she traveled extensively for humanitarian causes.
In 1971, amid the Troubles, she visited Belfast with four sisters, proposing a mission but withdrawing in 1973 due to clerical pressure. During the 1982 Siege of Beirut, she brokered a temporary ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian guerrillas to rescue 37 children from a front-line hospital. In the late 1980s, with perestroika, she expanded to Communist countries, visiting Armenia after the 1988 earthquake and meeting Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov. She aided Chernobyl radiation victims (1986), Ethiopian famine sufferers (1980s), and Armenian earthquake survivors (1988). In 1991, she returned to Albania, opening a home in Tirana.
Her order responded to global crises: floods, epidemics, famines, and refugee aid. By 1996, it ran 517 missions in over 100 countries, serving the "poorest of the poor" with 4,500 sisters by 2012. She emphasized small acts of love: "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
Health Decline and Death
Mother Teresa's health deteriorated in her later years. In 1983, she suffered a heart attack in Rome while visiting Pope John Paul II. A second attack in 1989 required a pacemaker. In 1991, pneumonia in Mexico exacerbated heart issues, but after offering to resign, her sisters voted for her to continue. In April 1996, she broke her collarbone; later that year, she contracted malaria and underwent heart surgery for left ventricular failure. Calcutta's Archbishop, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, authorized an exorcism, believing she might be under demonic attack.
She resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity on March 13, 1997, succeeded by Sister Nirmala Joshi. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at 9:30 PM in Calcutta from cardiac arrest, aged 87. Her death coincided with Princess Diana's funeral preparations, drawing global mourning. The Indian government granted a state funeral on September 13, 1997, attended by dignitaries including Hillary Clinton, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Cardinal Angelo Sodano delivered the homily. She lay in repose at St. Thomas Church, Calcutta, for a week, viewed by hundreds of thousands. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called her "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes," while UN Secretary-General Javier PΓ©rez de CuΓ©llar said, "She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world."
Recognition and Honors
Mother Teresa received over 120 awards and honors. In India: Padma Shri (1962), Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding (1969), Bharat Ratna (1980, India's highest civilian award). Internationally: Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize (1962, for "merciful cognisance of the abject poor of a foreign land"), Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), Pacem in Terris Award (1976), Balzan Prize (1978), Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), Order of Merit (UK, 1983), Presidential Medal of Freedom (US, 1985), Honorary U.S. Citizenship (1996), and Albania's Golden Honour of the Nation (1994).
Her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize was for "work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She declined the ceremonial banquet, donating the $192,000 prize money to India's poor, saying in her lecture: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove... That poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult." She topped Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century in 1999 and ranked first in several Gallup polls from the 1980s–1990s.
Universities awarded honorary degrees, including from the University of Scranton (1976, 1987) and Senate of Serampore College (1991). Her fame surged with Malcolm Muggeridge's 1969 BBC documentary Something Beautiful for God and 1971 book, where he attributed well-lit footage of the Home for the Dying to "divine light" (later explained as advanced Kodak film).
Spiritual Life
Mother Teresa's spirituality was deeply influenced by St. ThΓ©rΓ¨se of Lisieux and St. Francis of Assisi, emphasizing poverty, humility, and service to the marginalized. Her order recited the Peace Prayer of St. Francis daily. However, she endured a profound "dark night of the soul" for nearly 50 years (1948–1997), revealed in posthumous letters compiled in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (2007) by Brian Kolodiejchuk. She wrote to confessors like Archbishop Ferdinand PΓ©rier and Fr. Celeste van Exem of "emptiness and darkness," questioning God's existence: "Where is my faith? Even deep down... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness... If there be God—please forgive me." She compared it to hell but persisted, seeing it as sharing Christ's suffering.
A brief relief came in 1958 after Pope Pius XII's death, but dryness returned. Pope John Paul II praised her: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength...? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ." Pope Benedict XVI cited her in Deus Caritas Est (2005) as an example of prayer fueling service. Despite requests to destroy her letters, they were preserved for her canonization, showing her doubts were not an impediment but akin to those of saints like Thérèse of Lisieux.
Canonization Process
The process began in 1999, two years after her death (waiving the five-year wait), with Kolodiejchuk as postulator. He compiled 76 documents (35,000 pages) from 113 witnesses. For beatification, a miracle was required: In 2002, the Vatican recognized the healing of Monica Besra's abdominal tumor in 1998 after applying a locket with Mother Teresa's image. Besra claimed a beam of light cured her, but critics (including her husband and doctors) attributed it to tuberculosis medication, alleging the Missionaries of Charity confiscated records and pressured officials.
Despite investigations into criticisms (from Hitchens and Chatterjee), the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a nihil obstat on April 21, 1999. Pope John Paul II beatified her on October 19, 2003 (World Mission Sunday), calling her "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta."
For canonization, a second miracle was approved on December 17, 2015: the 2008 healing of a Brazilian man's multiple brain tumors. Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016, in St. Peter's Square, attended by 120,000, including 1,500 homeless Italians and delegations from 15 governments. It was live-streamed, with celebrations in Skopje and Calcutta.
On September 6, 2017, she was named co-patroness of the Archdiocese of Calcutta alongside St. Francis Xavier, during a Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary.
Legacy and Commemorations
Mother Teresa's legacy endures through the Missionaries of Charity, which, as of 2025, operates in over 130 countries with thousands of members, continuing her work amid global challenges like pandemics and conflicts. By the 1990s, it had over one million co-workers. The United Nations designated September 5 as the International Day of Charity in 2012.
Commemorations include: Albania's Mother Teresa Day (September 5, a public holiday) and Tirana International Airport NΓ«nΓ« Tereza (opened 2001); North Macedonia's Memorial House of Mother Teresa (Skopje, 2009); Kosovo's Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa (Pristina, consecrated 2017); India's Mother Teresa Women's University (Kodaikanal, 1984), Mother Teresa Postgraduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences (Puducherry, 1999), a ₹5 commemorative coin (2010), and the Mother Express train (2010). Tamil Nadu's Sevalaya runs the Mother Teresa Girls Home. The U.S. has the Mother Teresa Museum at Ave Maria University, Florida.
She ranked No. 5 in Outlook India's 2012 poll of Greatest Indians. Her life inspired films (Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor, 1997; The Letters, 2014), documentaries, books (Chawla's 1992 biography), and statues worldwide. Criticisms persist in academic discourse, but her image as a symbol of compassion remains dominant, with Pope Francis calling her "an eloquent witness to God's closeness to the poorest of the poor."
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