Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa,  original name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu(1910). Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, born in Albania. Having resolved to become a missionary at the age of 12, she joined the Sisters of Loretto, a community of Irish nuns, in 1928. After a short period in Dublin, she traveled to Calcutta, where she worked as a teacher. In 1948, after training as a nurse, she founded her Order of Missionaries of Charity to serve the blind, diseased and dying among the city’s poor. The Shanti Nagar leper colony near Asonol was opened in 1964. Her order now runs schools, clinics, children’s homes, and hospices in cities throughout India and in other developing countries. Mother Teresa herself, a tiny woman with evident political skills as well as an unshakeable sense of purpose, is now revered throughout the world (although some have criticized her authoritarian style). Her many honors include the Nobel Peace Prize (1979).