Mother Teresa

Personal

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Family

Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun, missionary and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, born in what is now Macedonia. Through her service of universal love as a nun and missionary, she devoted her life to the poor and sick. She decided to be a nun on 25 September 1928 and took the name of Teresa on 24 May 1931. (She said her divine call to work among the poor had come in 1946 and she opened her first Calcutta slum school in 1949.) Petite and of short body structure, she was plagued with heart problems and received a pacemaker 1 December 1989. (She was treated in California for bacterial pneumonia and heart disease and was hospitalized again in November 1996. She suffered several heart failures and received surgery to unblock two coronary arteries.) In early 1997 she was replaced by sister Nirmala, 63, as head of the Missionaries of Charity, stepping down due to poor health. Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 at 9:30 PM in Kolkata (Calcutta). Upon her death many of her followers wanted her to be beatified and canonized before the required waiting period. A controversial figure during her life and after her death, Teresa was admired by many for her charitable work. She was praised and criticised for her opposition to abortion, and criticised for poor conditions in her houses for the dying. She was canonized by Pope Francis on 4 September 2016. Link to Wikipedia biography