Mother Teresa In life, she administered hope, prayer and comfort to the poor, sick and dying and in death she has been beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Born to Albanian parents, Nikolle and Dranafille, on August 26th 1910 in what is now known as the Republic of Macedonia, Agnes Bojaxhiu was one of two daughters. Right from her early life when she was raised in the Catholic faith, after the death of her father, Agnes realized that her life would be spent in religious service and more specifically, as a missionary. So, at the age of eighteen she left her home and family and joined the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. After making that decision, Agnes never returned home or saw her family again. Her early days with the Loreto Abbey were spent in Ireland where she learned to speak English as it was the language used by Loreto Abbey when teaching children in India. In 1931 when she took her first vows as a nun, she chose the name Teresa as it was the name of the patron saint of missionaries. Over the years, as a nun, Mother Teresa had received permission from the Vatican to begin the ‘Missionaries of Charity’ and during her life opened many hospices, orphanages, and leper houses all over India. In her words, the missionary task 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, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."
In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1983 she was awarded the British Order of Merit (BOM) by Queen Elizabeth II, inn 1985 Ronald Reagan presented her with the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom and she was made an honorary citizen of the USA by President Bill Clinton.. Over the period of her missionaries Mother Teresa has inspired many celebrities to be moved by her work in such a way that they too have also felt compelled to offer their services to the charities. Among these celebrities is Penelope Cruz who has worked as a volunteer at the children’s sanctuary in Calcutta managed by Mother Teresa. A $20 million movie portrayal of the Angel of Calcutta stars British actress Olivia Hussey as Mother Teresa and is a film reminiscent of ‘Gandhi’ which also starred a British actor, Ben Kingsley and Candice Bergen. Mother Teresa is recognized around the world as one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century along with Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
After several years of heart problems and having undergone surgery to implant a pacemaker, Mother Teresa died in at the headquarters of the religious order that she founded in Eastern India on September 1997, just nine days after her 87th birthday and on the day that Princess Diana’s funeral was held in London. Diana had met with Mother Teresa at a private meeting in a convent in the Bronx, New York, in June 1997, just two months before both women died. ABB | 
