Catholic
nun and missionary Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, the
current capital of the Republic of Macedonia. The following day, she was baptized
as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. In 1919, when Agnes was only 8 years old, her father
suddenly fell ill and died. While the cause of his death remains unknown, many
have speculated that political enemies poisoned him. In the aftermath of her
father's death, Agnes became extraordinarily close to her mother, a pious and
compassionate woman who instilled in her daughter a deep commitment to charity.
Although
by no means wealthy, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city's
destitute to dine with her family. "My child, never eat a single mouthful
unless you are sharing it with others," she counseled her daughter. When
Agnes asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly
responded, "Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our
people."
In
1928, an 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and set off for
Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin. It was there that she took the
name Sister Mary Teresa
A
year later, Sister Mary Teresa traveled on to Darjeeling, India, for the
novitiate period; in May 1931, she made her First Profession of Vows. Afterward
she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at Saint Mary's High
School for Girls, a school run by the Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching
girls from the city's poorest Bengali families. Sister Teresa learned to speak
both Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and
dedicated herself to alleviating the girls' poverty through education.
On May 24, 1937, she took
her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. As
was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "Mother"
upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother
Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's
principal.
Mother
Teresa's 'Call Within a Call'
However, on September 10,
1946, Mother Teresa experienced a second calling, the "call within a
call" that would forever transform her life. She was riding in a train
from Calcutta to the Himalayan foothills for a retreat when she said Christ
spoke to her and told her to abandon teaching to work in the slums of Calcutta
aiding the city's poorest and sickest people.
But since Mother Teresa had
taken a vow of obedience, she could not leave her convent without official
permission. After nearly a year and a half of lobbying, in January 1948 she
finally received approval to pursue this new calling. That August, donning the
blue-and-white sari that she would wear in public for the rest of her life, she
left the Loreto convent and wandered out into the city. After six months of
basic medical training, she voyaged for the first time into Calcutta's slums
with no more specific a goal than to aid "the unwanted, the unloved, the
uncared for."
International
Charity and Recognition
In February 1965, Pope Paul
VI bestowed the Decree of Praise upon the Missionaries of Charity, which
prompted Mother Teresa to begin expanding internationally. The Decree of Praise
was just the beginning, as Mother Teresa received various honors for her
tireless and effective charity. She was awarded the Jewel of India, the highest
honor bestowed on Indian civilians, as well as the now-defunct Soviet Union's
Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work "in bringing help to
suffering humanity."
After several years of
deteriorating health, in which she suffered from heart, lung and kidney
problems, Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87.
However,
despite the enormous scale of her charitable activities and the millions of
lives she touched, to her dying day she held only the most humble conception of
her own achievements. Summing up her life in characteristically self-effacing
fashion, Mother Teresa said, "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."
In 2002, the Vatican recognized a
miracle involving an Indian woman named Monica Besra, who said
she was cured of an abdominal tumor through Mother Teresa's intercession on the
one year anniversary of her death in 1998. She was beatified as
"Blessed Teresa of Calcutta" on October 19, 2003 in a ceremony led by Pope
John Paul II.
On December 17, 2015, Pope Francis issued
a decree that recognized a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing
the way for her to be canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The
second miracle involved the healing of Marcilio Andrino, a Brazilian man who
was diagnosed with a viral brain infection and lapsed into a coma. His wife,
family and friends prayed to Mother Teresa, and when the man was brought to the
operating room for emergency surgery, he woke up without pain and was cured of
his symptoms, according to a statement from the Missionaries of Charity
Father.
Mother Teresa was canonized
as a saint on September 4, 2016, a day before the 19th anniversary of
her death. Pope Francis led the canonization Mass, which was held in St.
Peter's Square in Vatican City.
“After due
deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the
counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define Blessed Teresa of
Calcutta to be a saint, and we enroll her among the saints, decreeing that she
is to be venerated as such by the whole church,” Pope Francis said in
Latin.
Saint
Mother Teresa always lived the saying “your actions should speak louder than
your words”. She never waited for any recognition nor did she deviate from the
path she was moving on. The purpose, the longing within to serve the community,
the spur to do something for the neglected people and the humanitarian will
were few things she lived for.
I
was pondering that the recognition she got recently, is it not late now? But
then I found my answer instantly that she never waited for that nor did she ever
served to have that. And being a true follower, why should I also worry for
something which is just an acquisitive thing. Suspensions and deferment should
not affect your efforts towards your goals. That is what I have learnt from her
life and want my readers to accept the same while trailing their goals.
