Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Nobody argues that Mother Teresa is
Albani an.
Everyone knows that Mother Teresa is a Calcuttan. The Roman Catholic
nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity who has been awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1910 to Albanian parents in Skopje,
which at the time was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. When
she was 18, she entered the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of
Loreto in Ireland. She trained in Dublin and in Darjeeling, India,
before taking her religious vows in 1937. In September 1946, while
riding in a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she received a divine
calling from God "to serve Him amongst the poorest of the poor".
In 1948, when she was granted permission to leave her post at the
convent and begin a ministry among the sick., she became an Indian
citizen.
In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home
for Dying Destitutes in Kolkata. She and her fellow nuns took in
dying Indians off the streets of Kolkata and brought them to this
home to care for them during the days before they died, so that
they might be able to die in peace and with dignity. Mother Tersa
is the embodiment of the spirit of love and service, and today the
organization has over 5000 sisters, brothers, and volunteers who
run approximately 500 centers worldwide, feeding 500,000 families
and helping 90,000 lepers every year. Forced to scale back her activities
in 1990 because of declining health, Mother Teresa stepped down
on March 13 1997 as head of the order, and Sister Nirmala was chosen
to succeed her as leader of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother
Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at the age
of 87.
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