Agnes Gondza Bojadziu, better known as Mother Teresa, lived a life devoted to service and love to the poor, sick, and dying people of India.
Through her firm commitment and long standing example she became an inspiration to the whole world, challenging people everywhere, “to do small things with great love.”Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Macedonia, on 26 August, 1910, in a small home in the center of Skopje, near Macedonia Square and the entrance to today’s City Shopping Mall. She spoke often with nostalgia about her own town. Baptized in Sacred Heart Cathedral, which stood near her home, she was close to the church from an early age.
At the age of eighteen she left her parents’ home in Skopje to join the Sisters of Loretto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months training in Dublin she was sent to India, where, on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta. As she walked the streets of the city, the suffering and poverty she found outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that she changed her life in response to it. In 1946, Mother Teresa felt what seemed to be a direct command from god to go out among the poor to care for them and meet their needs. In 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.
On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission to start her own order, “The Missionaries of Charity,” whose primary task was to love and care for the people no one else was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.
Mother Teresa was a visionary woman, a woman with a sense of purpose that looked beyond her own situation to focus on the good of the poor around her. A humble servant, she sought strength from her God, depending on him to sustain her every day. She said of herself, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
Skopje always held a special place in her heart. In 1980 she said, “I am a citizen of Skopje, but I belong to the world.”
She was honored with awards around the world, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, and the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize awarded by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1980 she received the Nobel Peace Prize, refusing the traditional banquet and giving the cash portion to the poor of India. In 1994 she received a standing ovation for speaking out against abortion in her speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.
Mother Teresa died on 5 September, 1997, and was granted a state funeral in India out of gratitude for her service to the poor.
In 2003 Mother Teresa was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, acquiring the title “Blessed.” This is one of the steps in the process of canonization as a saint.
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