MOTHER TERESA

Mother Teresa was a humanitarian. This means she did things to help out other people. During her life she helped the poor, the sick and the needy. Mother Teresa was born in Uskub, in the Ottoman Empire, on August 26, 1910. This city is now called Skopje and is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Her real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father died when she was eight and she was raised by her mother.

Agnes grew up in the Roman Catholic Church. At the age of 18, Agnes joined the Sisters of Loreto to become a missionary to India. First, she spent a year in Ireland to learn English at the Loreto Abby. Then she went to India. She learnt the local language, Bengali, and taught at the local school. In 1931, she became a nun and chose the name Teresa. She taught for many years in India.

When she was 36 years old, Mother Teresa started helping the poor people of India. This wasn’t easy in 1948 in India. She had very little support. While she was trying to feed and help the poorest of the poor, she herself was always hungry and even had to beg for food. In 1950, Mother Teresa formed a group within the Catholic Church called the Missionaries of Charity. It was an organization which took care of poor people. When she first started the Missionaries of Charity there were only 13 members. Today, the group has over 4,000 members who care for people all over the world.

She was an international symbol of charity, visiting many countries to help poor children. She worked almost up until her death on September 5, 1997.