Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, now Kolkata. Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910, she spent most of her adult life in India and became internationally identified with direct service to people experiencing extreme poverty, terminal illness, disability, and social abandonment. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was canonized by Pope Francis as Saint Teresa of Calcutta on September 4, 2016. Her Catholic feast is observed on September 5, the anniversary of her death. [S1][S2]

The popular image behind descriptions such as the “Saint of the Gutters” is grounded in her work in Calcutta’s impoverished districts and her order’s stated commitment to the “poorest of the poor.” Yet her historical record is not solely celebratory. Admirers regard her as an emblem of compassion, self-sacrifice, and sustained attention to neglected people, while critics have questioned the medical care and pain relief available in some Missionaries of Charity homes. [S2][S3][S4]

Identity, birthplace, and names

She was born in Skopje, then within the Ottoman Empire and now the capital of North Macedonia, into an Albanian family. The sources render her given name in different but related forms: Britannica uses Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, while another account gives the Albanian form Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and explains that Anjezë is cognate with Agnes. She later became known as Mother Teresa and, after canonization, as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. [S1][S2]

Her birth and baptism dates require a distinction. One source dates her birth to August 26, 1910, and her baptism to August 27; Britannica’s main biographical line identifies August 27 as her baptismal date. She reportedly regarded the day of her baptism as her “true birthday.” The evidence therefore supports August 26 as her physical birth date and August 27 as her baptismal—and personally significant—date, rather than treating the two dates as interchangeable. [S1][S2][S5][S8]

Her nationality and cultural identity crossed several historical boundaries. She was born under Ottoman rule to an Albanian family, later lived and worked primarily in India, and adopted Indian citizenship. She is consequently described as an Albanian-Indian nun and saint. [S1][S2]

Family background and early religious vocation

Anjezë was the youngest child of Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu. Her family was devoutly Catholic, and her father participated in Albanian community politics. One source says he died in 1919, when she was eight, and reports a theory that he was poisoned after attending a political meeting in Belgrade; because that account characterizes the poisoning as probable rather than established, it should not be treated as certain. [S2]

Accounts of her youth associate her developing vocation with stories about missionaries serving in Bengal. According to a biography summarized in the supplied evidence, she had become convinced by about age 12 that she should enter religious life. Her resolve reportedly strengthened while she prayed at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Vitina-Letnice on August 15, 1928. [S2]

At age 18, she left home in 1928 for Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, where she joined the Sisters of Loreto and learned English, the language used by the order’s schools in India. She did not subsequently see her mother or sister again. Later attempts to visit them were frustrated under Albania’s communist government, which regarded her as an agent of the Vatican; both relatives died during that period. [S1][S2]

From Ireland to teaching in India

After only a brief period in Ireland—Britannica specifies roughly six weeks—she sailed to India. She arrived in 1929 and entered her novitiate in Darjeeling, where she learned Bengali and taught near her convent. She took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931, and her solemn vows on May 14, 1937. [S1][S2]

She chose the religious name Teresa in honor of Thérèse of Lisieux, the French Carmelite nun and patron saint of missionaries. One account explains that another nun had already selected the usual form of the name, leading her to use the Spanish spelling “Teresa.” [S1][S2]

Teresa then spent 17 years teaching at a Loreto school in Calcutta. The supplied accounts identify St. Mary’s High School as one of her teaching posts and emphasize that her work brought her into proximity with the profound deprivation of the city’s slums. [S1][S5][S8]

The “call within a call”

In 1946, Sister Teresa experienced what she called a “call within a call.” She understood it as divine inspiration directing her away from her established teaching life and toward personal service among sick and impoverished people. This is a report of her own religious interpretation: it establishes how she understood the experience, not an independently verifiable supernatural event. [S1][S5]

She subsequently left the convent-school setting and moved into poor districts she had observed while teaching. She adopted Indian citizenship, and the women who joined her wore the sari as their religious habit. Her work initially included outdoor schools and dispensaries. [S1]

Founding the Missionaries of Charity

The founding date of the Missionaries of Charity varies according to what stage of formation is being described. Britannica says Mother Teresa founded the order in 1948, when she began her independent mission and obtained a former pilgrim hostel near the temple of the Hindu goddess Kali. A separate history dates formal establishment to October 7, 1950, when the small community was recognized as a diocesan congregation of the Calcutta Diocese. Another source likewise says the Roman Catholic Church officially recognized the new order in 1950. Thus, 1948 marks the practical beginning of the mission, while 1950 marks its formal ecclesiastical constitution. [S1][S3][S5][S8]

The congregation began with 12 members in Calcutta and was dedicated to people its founder described as hungry, unclothed, homeless, disabled, blind, affected by leprosy, unwanted, or otherwise rejected. Members profess the Catholic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, together with a distinctive fourth vow of free and wholehearted service to the “poorest of the poor.” [S2][S3]

Pope Pius XII granted the order canonical sanction in 1950. In 1965 Pope Paul VI made it a pontifical congregation, placing it under papal authority and enabling wider expansion. The congregation’s first house outside India was established in Venezuela, followed by foundations in Rome, Tanzania, and other parts of the world. [S1][S3]

Nirmal Hriday and care for the dying

In 1952 Mother Teresa established Nirmal Hriday, translated as “Place for the Pure of Heart,” in Calcutta. It was intended as a home where terminally ill and destitute people could die with dignity. Workers and volunteers were expected to respect the religious beliefs of those admitted, despite the explicitly Catholic identity of the organization. [S1][S5]

Nirmal Hriday became one of the defining institutions associated with her public reputation. It embodied her emphasis on accompanying people who had been abandoned or lacked conventional support, but it later also became central to disputes about whether compassionate presence was accompanied by adequate clinical treatment and pain management. [S2][S3]

Wider programs and institutional growth

Under Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity established dispensaries, schools, orphanages, nutrition centers, health centers, and homes serving people who were blind, elderly, disabled, seriously ill, or dying. The order also built Shanti Nagar, meaning “Town of Peace,” a colony for people with leprosy near Asansol in India. [S1][S5]

The organization’s work expanded beyond India to communities affected by poverty, war, disease, and displacement. The supplied accounts mention services among poor communities in South Africa and New York’s Harlem, as well as among Christians and Muslims in Lebanon during the early 1980s. Services developed according to local needs and included soup kitchens, mobile clinics, schools for street children, and care for refugees and victims of disasters, epidemics, and famine. [S3][S5]

The wider Missionaries of Charity family also acquired additional branches. Brother Andrew founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity in Australia in 1963. A contemplative branch of the Brothers was added in 1979, and Mother Teresa and Father Joseph Langford founded the Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics also participated through associated co-worker and lay missionary groups. [S3]

The scale of the organization changed dramatically during her lifetime. By 1996 it operated 517 missions in more than 100 countries. At her death in 1997, accounts describe hundreds of centers in more than 90 countries, approximately 4,000 nuns, and hundreds of thousands of lay workers and volunteers. Later figures in the supplied material report 5,750 religious sisters serving through 760 homes in 139 countries in 2023, illustrating the institution’s continued expansion after its founder’s death. [S1][S3][S5]

Public recognition and major honors

India awarded Mother Teresa the Padma Shri in 1962 for her service. In 1964 Pope Paul VI gave her the ceremonial limousine he had used during a visit to India; she raffled it to raise money for Shanti Nagar. Paul VI later summoned her to establish a home in Rome in 1968 and awarded her the inaugural Pope John XXIII Peace Prize on January 6, 1971. [S1]

She also received the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize. Her most internationally prominent honor was the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for her humanitarian work. In 1980 India conferred the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian honor, upon her. [S1][S2]

These awards helped transform a Catholic mission originating in Calcutta into a globally recognized humanitarian institution. Mother Teresa’s white sari with blue borders, religious habit, and rosary became visual markers of a public identity centered on proximity to impoverished and dying people. [S1][S2]

Religious and moral outlook

Mother Teresa’s work combined charitable service with an uncompromising Catholic worldview. In later life she publicly opposed divorce, contraception, and abortion. These positions contributed to her standing among traditional Catholics but also made her a controversial participant in public moral debate. [S1]

Her private correspondence complicated the public picture of unwavering spiritual confidence. Letters collected and published in 2007 indicate that for roughly the last 50 years of her life she did not feel God’s presence in her soul and experienced a prolonged sense of spiritual abandonment. She interpreted this “darkness” as participation in Christ’s Passion and continued her religious work despite it. [S1]

The letters therefore reveal a marked contrast between her outward cheerfulness and inward spiritual desolation. Rather than abandoning her vocation, she incorporated the perceived absence of God into her faith and continued to understand her service as work for Christ. [S1]

Criticism and disputed standards of care

Mother Teresa and her organization drew criticism over conditions in homes for the dying, especially alleged shortcomings in medical care and pain relief. A 1994 account in The Lancet by physician Robin Fox noted the absence of full-time medically trained personnel and strong analgesics at the Calcutta home and compared its care unfavorably with British hospice standards. [S2][S3]

That criticism was itself contested. A later response in The Lancet argued that the comparison insufficiently accounted for conditions in India, including regulations that effectively prevented morphine use outside large hospitals. The available evidence therefore supports neither an unqualified portrayal of exemplary medical care nor a context-free conclusion that every shortcoming reflected deliberate neglect. It establishes a genuine dispute between concerns about clinical standards and arguments about resource and regulatory constraints. [S3]

The distinction between a home offering refuge and dignity and a medically equipped hospice is important to interpreting the controversy. Mother Teresa’s institutions were celebrated for admitting people whom society had rejected, but compassionate intention does not by itself resolve questions about staff training, analgesia, hygiene, or treatment quality. The supplied sources document both the humanitarian purpose and the substantive criticism. [S1][S2][S3]

Health, resignation, and succession

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in 1989 and was fitted with a pacemaker. In 1990 she resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the congregation returned her to office by a nearly unanimous vote; according to Britannica, her own vote was the sole dissent. [S1][S5]

As her heart condition worsened, she retired permanently. Sister Nirmala Joshi was elected superior general on March 13, 1997, about six months before Mother Teresa’s death. Mother Teresa also experienced heart and kidney problems during her final year. [S1][S3][S5]

She died in Calcutta on September 5, 1997, aged 87. The accounts attribute her death to a heart attack or place it in the context of her worsening heart condition. [S1][S2][S5]

Beatification and canonization

The process of declaring Mother Teresa a saint began within two years of her death after Pope John Paul II granted a special dispensation to accelerate the usual timetable. She was beatified by John Paul II on October 19, 2003, in what was then the shortest interval between death and beatification in Roman Catholic history. [S1][S2][S5]

Pope Francis canonized her at Saint Peter’s Square on September 4, 2016. The Catholic Church venerates her as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and September 5 is her feast day. In 2017 she was named a co-patron of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta alongside St. Francis Xavier. [S1][S2]

Historical significance and legacy

Mother Teresa’s enduring importance lies partly in the institution she built. A community of 12 members became a worldwide religious network whose sisters and associated branches served people affected by homelessness, disability, leprosy, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, old age, abandonment, disaster, and displacement. Its continued operation across 139 countries as of 2023 demonstrates a legacy extending well beyond her personal ministry. [S2][S3]

Her public legacy is also symbolic. She brought international attention to people dying or living in severe deprivation and modeled a form of charity based on direct physical presence among those who were socially excluded. Books, documentaries, films, awards, and Catholic devotion reinforced her status as one of the most recognizable humanitarian and religious figures of the 20th century. [S2][S5]

A definitive historical assessment must preserve the tension in that legacy. Mother Teresa was both a canonized Catholic saint whose organization reached neglected people on a vast scale and a controversial institutional leader whose homes prompted serious questions about medical practice. Her moral positions and missionary purpose were explicitly Catholic, while her services were offered without charge and, according to the order’s account, without discrimination by religion or social status. [S1][S2][S3]

Concise chronology

• August 26, 1910: Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje; baptized the following day. [S1][S2]
• 1928: Left home at 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. [S1][S2]
• 1929: Arrived in India and began her novitiate in Darjeeling. [S2]
• May 24, 1931: Took her first religious vows. [S2]
• May 14, 1937: Took solemn vows while working as a teacher. [S2]
• 1946: Experienced the “call within a call” that redirected her vocation toward the sick and poor. [S1][S5]
• 1948: Began the independent mission that became the Missionaries of Charity. [S1][S8]
• October 7, 1950: The community received formal diocesan recognition in Calcutta. [S3]
• 1952: Established Nirmal Hriday for destitute and terminally ill people. [S1][S5]
• 1962: Received the Padma Shri and Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize. [S1][S2]
• 1965: The Missionaries of Charity became a pontifical congregation. [S1][S3]
• 1979: Received the Nobel Peace Prize. [S1][S2]
• 1980: Received India’s Bharat Ratna. [S1]
• 1989: Suffered a heart attack. [S1][S5]
• 1990: Attempted to resign but was voted back into office. [S1][S3]
• March 13, 1997: Sister Nirmala Joshi was elected her successor. [S3]
• September 5, 1997: Died in Calcutta at age 87. [S1][S2]
• October 19, 2003: Beatified by Pope John Paul II. [S1][S2]
• September 4, 2016: Canonized by Pope Francis. [S1][S2]

FAQ

What was Mother Teresa’s original name?

Her name is given as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Albanian and as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in an Anglicized form. She adopted the religious name Teresa in honor of Thérèse of Lisieux. [S1][S2]

Was she born on August 26 or August 27, 1910?

The evidence identifies August 26 as her birth date and August 27 as her baptismal date. She reportedly regarded the baptismal date as her “true birthday,” which helps explain references emphasizing August 27. [S1][S2]

When did she found the Missionaries of Charity?

Her independent mission began in 1948, while the community received formal recognition as a diocesan Catholic congregation on October 7, 1950. The two dates describe different stages rather than an irreconcilable contradiction. [S1][S3][S8]

What was she best known for?

She was best known for founding and leading the Missionaries of Charity and for serving people affected by extreme poverty, terminal illness, disability, and social rejection, especially in Calcutta. [S1][S2]

Did she win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Yes. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. [S1][S2]

Why was her work criticized?

Critics questioned conditions, medical staffing, and access to strong pain relief in homes for the dying. Defenders responded that some comparisons overlooked Indian regulations and local constraints, particularly restrictions on morphine outside major hospitals. [S2][S3]

When did she become a saint?

She was beatified on October 19, 2003, and canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016. Her feast day is September 5. [S1][S2]