“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
…Mother Teresa

MOTHER TERESA (1910 – 1997)
If we are asked to qualify people with just a word, then the word that qualifies Mother Teresa is love. She was love personified and exemplified. She didn't just believe in it, she lived it and preached it. It wasn't for the glams. It wasn't for a position. It wasn't for any selfish or ulterior motives. It was basically for humanity. She gave her all. So much so that a reader objected to the several illnesses which caused her death that she didn't die of heart failure but she, at last, gave her heart away.

Early Life
Mother Teresa was born on the 26th of August 1910. She was born in Skopje which is currently the capital of North Macedonia, to a family of Albanian descent. She was christened Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, being of Albanian descent. She was Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu’s last child.
Her family was devoted to the catholic. Nikollë was involved deeply in the activities of their local church. He was a businessman and was also involved in the politics of the Albanian community before his death in 1919, while Anjezë was still 8 years old.
Anjezë lived in her birthplace Skopje until she was 18 years old. Growing up, Anjezë was always fascinated by the stories of missionaries and their lives and works in Bengal. She decided she would commit to religious life while she was 12. And her resolve became stronger when she was 18. She moved to Ireland and later to India. She would later live most years of her life in India, as she became a citizen of India.
She finally left home at 18 for the Loreto Abbey at Rathfarnham, Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto. She would not get to see her family again as she continued on her missionary journey. It was in Ireland that she learned English as part of her missionary journey since English was the instructional language of the Sisters of Loreto in India.
She was sent to India in 1929 where she started her novitiate in Darjeeling. There, she learned Bengali and taught at St Mary's high school for girls. The school was founded for educating girls from the poorest families in Bengali; and was run by her convent, the Loreto Sisters.
And in 1931, she took her first religious vows. She wanted to be named Thérèse De Lisieux, who is the patron saint of missionaries. But she opted for the Spanish spelling of the name because another nun from her convent had chosen the name. Hence, the birth of the name, Teresa. In 1937, Teresa took her solemn vows which led to taking on the title "Mother" as part of the customs of the Loreto nuns. She continued to teach at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta. She remained there in service for about twenty years. Mother Teresa carried on her teaching and missionary journey in love and devotion to the church and humanity. She was both committed to educating her students and helping poor families in Bengal.

“A Call Within A Call”
Mother Teresa had an experience that she would personally describe as a call within a call. This was when she was traveling from Calcutta to Loreto Convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat. While she was on the train en route to Darjeeling, Christ spoke to her and gave her an order of servitude to humanity. She was ordered to leave her teaching job to go to the slums of Calcutta to help the poorest and sickest people of the city.
After the much-needed lobbying of about a year and a half, Mother Teresa was granted permission to leave the convent to pursue her second calling. This was because she couldn't leave the Convent without official permission as she had sworn a vow of obedience to the Convent. She left the Loreto convent in August of 1948.
She moved into the city where she had basic medical training at the Holy Family Hospital for six months in Patna. After her training at the hospital, she moved into the slums of Calcutta for the first time. Her goal for moving to the slums was simply to help and assist the " unloved, uncared for, and the unwanted" people.

Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity
Mother Teresa quickly began her missionaries of charity as she had been mandated. She founded an open-air school in Motijhil, Kolkata to educate the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. She later built a home in an already dilapidated house to care for the dying and extremely poor. She was able to convince the government of the city in Calcutta to donate to support the cause.
She also received support from a group of young women who were mostly teachers and students from St Mary's School. This led to her receiving canonical recognition in 1950 for her new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity to start.
Her missionary movement continued in India and as it waxed stronger, she gained attention from around the country and abroad. She received donations from India and different parts of the world which led her to further expand her charitable activities.
She went on to establish an orphanage, a leper colony, a family clinic, a nursing home, and mobile clinics throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Mother Teresa – The Most Powerful Woman In The World
Mother Teresa fondly said she was Albanian by blood, Indian by citizenship, and a Catholic nun by faith. She would also add that as for her calling, she belongs to the world, and as for her heart, she belongs completely to the heart of Jesus.
Pope Paul VI honored the Missionaries of Charity with the Decree of Praise in February 1965. This prompted Mother Teresa to further her international expansion.
Mother Teresa received several awards and recognition globally. Highly notable among them are: being awarded the highest honor that a civilian can get in India – “the Jewel of India;” and a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, recognition for her work in helping the suffering humanity.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, later went to New York City to establish her first US-based house of charity. In the summer of 1982, Mother Teresa secretly left for Beirut, Lebanon. Her journey to Beirut was to offer help to children of both Christian East Beirut and Muslim West Beirut who were trapped in the siege of the First Lebanon War. She evacuated scores of physically challenged children. And returned to New York.
In 1985, she spoke at the United Nations General Assembly's 40th anniversary in New York. In the introduction of Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar, he introduced Mother Teresa as the most powerful woman in the world. He said she was the United Nations, peace in this world. Mother Teresa's address was titled “One Strong Resolution: I Will Love.”
In 1999, after her demise, she ranked #1 in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

The Starfishes
There's this popular story of a storm that raged an ocean and swept tens of thousands of starfish to the beach. A boy began picking the fishes that were still alive back into the water. Some people wondered and told him how effortless his endeavor will be when there would still be tens of thousands of fish left ashore or dead at the end of the day. The boy told them he might not be able to save the world of the starfish but for every starfish he saves, he saved its world.
Mother Teresa tends to have lived on a principle like this. She might not have been able to save the world but she saved the “worlds” of people before she breathed her last in 1997, as she finally gave her heart away as someone opined.
At her departure, the Missionaries of Charity had about 4,000 sisters, with thousands of other volunteers. The Missionaries of Charity had already established 610 foundations and 450 centers in up to 123 countries globally.
In 2016, she was named Saint Teresa of Calcutta in the order of the Catholic Church.



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