Mother Teresa: Making the world a better place by helping one person at a time
Born in Uskub, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, Republic of Macedonia), Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu became an ethnic Albanian Catholic nun and an Indian citizen. He founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India and for over 45 years made it his life’s mission to touch the hearts and minds of people around the world, as well as minister to the sick, poor, orphaned and dying all over the world. the world. world. Her work was so well known and so great that after her death, Pope John Paul II beatified her and gave her the title of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
During the 1970s, Mother Teresa was known internationally as a humanitarian and became a strong advocate for poor and defenseless people around the world. Her fame rose internationally after a documentary and a book titled “Something Beautiful to God” published by an author named Malcolm Muggeridge. For his work on humanitarian issues around the world, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, as well as India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1980. Thanks to his hard work, his missions expanded throughout the world. spanned 123 countries around the world and operated on 600 different missions. These included hospices, homes for people with HIV/AIDS, homes for people with leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, family and children’s counseling programs, schools, and orphanages.
He began his long journey to become one of the most recognized figures in humanitarian aid and issues in 1946 while traveling to Loreto Convent in Darjeeling for his annual retreat. She felt that she was called to leave the convent and help the poor while she lived with them. She then began her missionary work in 1948. To do this, she replaced her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari that was decorated only with a blue border, adopted Indian citizenship, and then ventured into the slums to help and minister. . the poor who lived among them. She experienced so many hardships during her first year, as she wrote in her diary that she had no income, no home, no food, and she was forced to beg for food and supplies. He said how hard things were for her and that he had God’s comfort to help her, so he felt even worse for those poor people he was ministering to who didn’t have that rock in her life.
In 1950, he obtained permission from the Vatican to start the diocesan congregation that would soon become his Missionaries of Charity. The mission was to care for “the hungry, the naked, the helpless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, neglected in the whole of society, people who have become a burden for society and are rejected by all”. It started with just 13 members, while today it has more than 4,000 nuns operating different missionaries around the world. In 1952 she opened her first home for the dying in Calcutta. Here, she enlisted the help of Indian officials to convert an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home For The Dying, which was a free hospice for the poor. She ministered to all different religions, from Catholic to Muslim; her making sure everyone felt loved and wanted in their final hours on Earth.
But it wasn’t just the dying that touched Mother Teresa’s heart, she felt the need to create a home for all the lost children in the area and the world. She opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Immaculate Heart Children’s Home, as a shelter for orphans and the homeless. For her works, she began receiving recruits and donations and by the 1960s she had opened several different venues throughout India. It was her love for people and children that captured the hearts of people around the world and led her to dangerous places to rescue children. One of her best-known rescues was in 1982, during the siege of Beirut, where she brokered a temporary ceasefire between the two sides in order to rescue 37 children who were trapped in a front-line hospital. With the help of the Red Cross, she traveled through the war-torn area to help young patients to safety.
These kinds of acts made her a beloved international figure known for her goodwill toward people of all races, religions, and nationalities. The quotes and spirit of Mother Teresa live on in the many nuns and missions around the world who follow in her footsteps and help care for the poor who so desperately need help.