Mother Teresa

Life events

1. Born — 1910

   Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910 into a Kosovar Albanian family in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire. She was baptised the following day, 27 August, which she later considered her true birthday.

2. Tonsured — 1928

   At age 18, Anjezë left Skopje in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, intending to learn English before missionary work in India. She arrived in India in 1929 and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, learning Bengali and teaching at St. Teresa's School.

3. Ordained — 1937

   Teresa took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937 while a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta, taking the title of 'Mother' as part of Loreto custom. She had taken her first religious vows on 24 May 1931.

4. Other — 1946

   On 10 September 1946, while travelling by train from Calcutta to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Teresa experienced what she described as 'the call within the call' — a conviction that she was to leave the convent and serve the poor while living among them.

5. Other — 1950

   On 7 October 1950, Teresa received Vatican permission to establish the Missionaries of Charity as a diocesan congregation in Calcutta, dedicated to serving 'the poorest of the poor'. She chose a white sari with two blue borders as the order's habit.

6. Other — 1979

   Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December 1979 'for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace'. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet, asking that its $192,000 cost be redirected to the poor in India.

7. Died — 1997

   Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 in Calcutta. She received a state funeral from the Indian government, and lay in repose in an open casket in St Thomas, Calcutta, for a week before the ceremony. At the time of her death the Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters operating 610 missions in 123 countries.

8. Other — 2016

   Pope Francis canonised Teresa of Calcutta on 4 September 2016 in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, before tens of thousands of witnesses including 15 government delegations and 1,500 homeless people from across Italy. She had been beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 October 2003.

Relationships

Documented claims

• When Anjezë took religious vows in 1931, she chose the name Teresa after Thérèse de Lisieux, patron of missionaries. Because another nun in the convent had already taken that name, she adopted the Spanish spelling 'Teresa' instead. (likely)
• In 1952 Teresa converted an abandoned Hindu temple in Calcutta into the Kalighat Home for the Dying (Nirmal Hriday, 'Home of the Pure Heart'), providing free care where Muslims received Quranic readings, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received extreme unction. (likely)
• Teresa privately endured nearly 50 years of spiritual desolation, writing to her confessors of 'emptiness and darkness' and doubting God's existence. She had requested her letters be destroyed; they were instead published posthumously as 'Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light'. (certain)
• At the height of the 1982 Siege of Beirut, Teresa brokered a temporary ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas, then travelled through the war zone accompanied by Red Cross workers to evacuate 37 children trapped in a front-line hospital. (likely)
• Beginning 5 September 2013, the United Nations General Assembly designated the anniversary of Teresa's death as the International Day of Charity. Albania observes the same date as a public holiday, Dita e Nënë Terezës. (certain)