1. Mother Teresa
(born Aug. 27, 1910, Skopje, Maced., Ottoman Empiredied Sept. 5, 1997, Calcutta, India; beatified Oct.
19, 2003) Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. The daughter of a
grocer, she became a nun and went to India as a young woman. After studying nursing, she moved to
the slums of Calcutta (Kolkata); in 1948 she founded her order, which served the blind, the aged, the
disabled, and the dying. In 1963 the Indian government awarded her the Padmashri (Lord of the Lotus)
for her services to the people of India, and in 1971 Pope Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII
Peace Prize. In 1979 she received the Nobel Prize for Peace. Although in her later years she suffered
from a worsening heart condition, Mother Teresa continued to serve the poor and sick and also spoke
out against divorce, contraception, and abortion. Her order included hundreds of centres in more than
90 countries, with some 4,000 nuns and hundreds of thousands of lay workers. She was succeeded by
the Indian-born Sister Nirmala. The process to declare her a saint began within two years of her death,
and Pope John Paul II issued a special dispensation to expedite the process. She was beatified on Oct.
19, 2003, reaching the ranks of the blessed in the shortest time in the church's history.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Roman Catholic nun who founded the only Catholic religious order
still growing in membership, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Yugoslavia, on
August 27, 1910. Her parents were Albanian grocers, and at the time of her birth Skopje lay
within the Ottoman Empire. She attended public school in Skopje, and first showed religious
interests as a member of a school sodality that focused on foreign missions. By the age of 12 she
felt she had a calling to help the poor.
This calling took sharper focus through her teenage years, when she was especially inspired by
reports of work being done in India by Yugoslav Jesuit missionaries serving in Bengal. When
she was 18 Mother Teresa left home to join a community of Irish nuns, the Sisters of Loretto,
who had a mission in Calcutta, India. She received training in Dublin, Ireland, and in Darjeeling,
India, taking her first religious vows in 1928 and her final religious vows in 1937.
One of Mother Teresa's first assignments was to teach, and eventually to serve as principal, in a
girls' high school in Calcutta. Although the school lay close to the teeming slums, the students
were mainly wealthy. In 1946 Mother Teresa experienced what she called a second vocation or
"call within a call." She felt an inner urging to leave the convent life and work directly with the
poor. In 1948 the Vatican gave her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and to start a new
work under the guidance of the Archbishop of Calcutta.
Founding the Missionaries of Charity
To prepare to work with the poor, Mother Teresa took an intensive medical training with the
American Medical Missionary Sisters in Patna, India. Her first venture in Calcutta was to gather
unschooled children from the slums and start to teach them. She quickly attracted both financial
support and volunteers, and in 1950 her group, now called the Missionaries of Charity, received
official status as a religious community within the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Members took the
traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but they added a fourth vow - to give free

2. service to the most abjectly poor. In Mother Teresa's own view, the work of her group was very
different from that of secular welfare agencies. She saw her nuns ministering to Jesus, whom
they encounter as suffering in the poor, especially those who are dying alone or who are
abandoned children.
The Missionaries of Charity began their distinctive work of ministering to the dying in 1952,
when they took over a temple in Calcutta that previously had been dedicated to the Hindu
goddess Kali. The sisters working there had, as their main goal, filling with dignity and love the
last days of poor people who were dying. The physical conditions of this shelter were not
imposing, although they were completely clean; but the emotional atmosphere of love and
concern struck most visitors as truly saintly. When the sisters were criticized or disparaged
because of the small scale of their work (in the context of India's tens of millions of desperately
poor and suffering people), Mother Teresa tended to respond very simply. She considered any
governmental help a benefit, but she was content to have her sisters do what they could for
specific suffering people, since she regarded each individual as infinitely precious in God's sight.
The Missionaries of Charity received considerable publicity, and Mother Teresa used it rather
adroitly to benefit her work. In 1957 they began to work with lepers and slowly expanded their
educational work, at one point running nine elementary schools in Calcutta. They also opened a
home for orphans and abandoned children. In 1959 they began to expand outside of Calcutta,
starting works in other Indian cities. As in Calcutta, their focus was the poorest of the poor:
orphans, the dying, and those ostracized by diseases such as leprosy. Before long they had a
presence in more than 22 Indian cities, and Mother Teresa had visited such other countries as
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Italy to begin foundations.
Although in most of these countries the problems of the poor seemed compounded by
uncontrolled population growth, the Sisters held strongly negative views on both abortion and
contraception. Their overriding conviction was that all lives are precious, and sometimes they
seemed to imply that the more human beings there were, the better God's plan was flourishing.
In 1969 Mother Teresa allowed a group called the International Association of Co-Workers of
Mother Teresa to affiliate itself with the Missionaries of Charity. This was a sort of "third order,
" as Catholics sometimes call basically lay groups that affiliate with religious orders both to help
the orders in their work and to participate in their idealistic spirituality. These Co-Workers were
drawn to Mother Teresa's work with the very poor, and their constitution specified that they
wanted to help serve the poorest of the poor, without regard to caste or creed, in a spirit of prayer
and sacrifice.
Dedication to the Very Poor
Mother Teresa's group continued to expand throughout the 1970s, opening works in such new
countries as Jordan (Amman), England (London), and the United States (Harlem, New York
City). She received both recognition and financial support through such awards as the Pope John
XXIII Peace Prize and a grant from the Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Benefactors regularly
would arrive to support works in progress or to stimulate the Sisters to open new ventures.
Mother Teresa received increasing attention in the media, especially through a British
Broadcasting Corporation special interview that Malcolm Muggeridge conducted with her in

3. London in 1968. In 1971, on the occasion of visiting some of her sisters in London, she went to
Belfast, Northern Ireland, to pray with the Irish women for peace and to meet with lan Paisley, a
militant Protestant leader. In the same year she opened a home in Bangladesh for women raped
by Pakistani soldiers in the conflicts of that time. By 1979 her groups had more than 200
different operations in over 25 countries around the world, with dozens more ventures on the
horizon. In 1986 she persuaded President Fidel Castro to allow a mission in Cuba. The hallmark
of all of Mother Teresa's works - from shelters for the dying to orphanages and homes for the
mentally ill - continued to be service to the very poor.
In 1988 Mother Teresa sent her Missionaries of Charity into Russia and also opened a home for
AIDS patients in San Francisco, California. In 1991 she returned home to Albania and opened a
home in Tirana, the capital. At this time, there were 168 homes operating in India. Later in 1995,
plans materialized to open homes in China.
Despite the appeal of this saintly work, all commentators remarked that Mother Teresa herself
was the most important reason for the growth of her order and the fame that came to it.
Muggeridge was struck by her pleasant directness and by the otherworldly character of her
values. He saw her as having her feet completely on the ground, yet she seemed almost unable to
comprehend his suggestion (meant as an interviewer's controversial prod) that trying to save a
few of India's abandoned children was almost meaningless, in the face of the hordes whom no
one was helping. He realized that Mother Teresa had virtually no understanding of a cynical or
godless point of view that could consider any human being less than absolutely valuable.
Another British interviewer, Polly Toynbee, was especially struck by Mother Teresa's lack of
rage or indignation. Unlike many "social critics, " she did not find it necessary to attack the
economic or political structures of the cultures that were producing the abjectly poor people she
was serving. For her the primary rule was a constant love, and when social critics or religious
reformers chose to vent anger at the evils of structures underlying poverty and suffering, that was
between them and God. Indeed, in later interviews Mother Teresa continued to strike an
apolitical pose, refusing to take a stand on anything other than strictly religious matters. One
sensed that to her mind politics, economics, and other this-worldly matters were other people's
business. The business given by God to her and her group was simply serving the very poor with
as much love and skill as they could muster.
In the 1980s and 1990s Mother Teresa's health problems became a concern. She suffered a heart
attack while visiting Pope John Paul II in 1983. She had a near fatal heart attack in 1989 and
began wearing a pacemaker.
In August 1996 the world prayed for Mother Teresa's recovery. At the age of 86, Mother Teresa
was on a respirator in a hospital, suffering from heart failure and malaria. Doctors were not sure
she would recover. Within days she was fully conscious, asked to receive communion, and
requested that the doctors send her home. When she was sent home a few weeks later in early
September, a doctor said she firmly believed, "God will take care of me."

4. In late November of that same year, Mother Teresa was again hospitalized. She had angioplasty
surgery to clear two blocked arteries. She was also given a mild electric shock to correct an
irregular heartbeat. She was released after spending almost a month in the hospital.
In March 1997, after an eight week selection process, 63-year-old Sister Nirmala was named as
the new leader of the Missionaries of Charity. Although Mother Teresa had been trying to cut
back on her duties for some time (because of her health problems), she stayed on in an advisory
role to Sister Nirmala.
In April 1997 filming began on the movie "Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor" with
actress Geraldine Chaplin playing the title role. The movie aired in the fall of 1997 on "The
Family Channel" even though, after viewing the movie, Mother Teresa refused to endorse it.
Mother Teresa celebrated her 87th birthday in August, and died shortly thereafter of a heart
attack on September 5, 1997. The world grieved her loss and one mourner noted, "It was Mother
herself who poor people respected. When they bury her, we will have lost something that cannot
be replaced."
In appearance Mother Teresa was both tiny (only about five feet tall) and energetic. Her face was
quite wrinkled, but her dark eyes commanded attention, radiating an energy and intelligence that
shone without expressing nervousness or impatience. Many of her recruits came from people
attracted by her own aura of sanctity, and she seemed little changed by the worldwide attention
she received. Conservatives within the Catholic Church sometimes used her as a symbol of
traditional religious values that they felt lacking in their churches. By popular consensus she was
a saint for the times, and a spate of almost adoring books and articles started to canonize her in
the 1980s and well into the 1990s. She herself tried to deflect all attention away from what she
did to either the works of her group or to the god who was her inspiration. She continued to
combine energetic administrative activities with a demanding life of prayer, and if she accepted
opportunities to publicize her work they had little of the cult of personality about them.
In the wake of the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace she received many other international honors, but
she sometimes disconcerted humanitarian groups by expressing her horror at abortion or her own
preference for prayer rather than politics. When asked what would happen to her group and work
after her death, she told people that God would surely provide a successor - a person humbler
and more faithful than she. The Missionaries of Charity, who had brothers as well as sisters by
the mid-1980s, are guided by the constitution she wrote for them. They have their vivid
memories of the love for the poor that created the phenomenon of Mother Teresa in the first
place. So the final part of her story will be the lasting impact her memory has on the next
generations of missionaries, as well as in the world as a whole.

5. What were Mother Teresa's contributions to
society and the world?
The answer is not obvious to modern people as they did not understand Mother Theresa, because they
do not understand real Christianity. Mother Theresa, a Catholic nun who entered the Sisters of Loretto
in Ireland to become a teaching nun, was sent to India to teach. Later, moved with compassion, and the
love of God, she received a "call" from God to help the poorest of the poor. The rest of her life was
spent in "darkness" which I discuss below.
.
Modern people, and most people who call themselves Christians, think that going to Church on Sunday,
saying some things, and being nice to people is what it is all about. They are completely missing the
mark. Those kind of things are just the tip of the iceberg. Mother Teresa helped others by loving God
above all things, putting Him first in her life, and doing His Will no matter how painful it was for her, and
it was very painful.
.
Mother spent most of her life in a dark night with no real feeling or personal knowledge of God. This is
very common with the founders of religious orders, they are strong enough in their faith to make their
way through life totally depend on Faith, Hope, and Charity: the three cardinal virtues bestowed on us in
Baptism. She sacrificed herself completely for God, and was called a saint and a prophet for it.
.
Mother Theresa helped others the way we are all called to help others, by getting up in the morning,
and taking some to give to God first. She spend an hour in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament,
went to Holy Mass, received Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist, and went to confession frequently, and
regularly. And, then, when she had done these things, she went out and lived her faith by seeing her
God in every individual in front of her, especially the poor, the sick, the aged, and the abandoned. She
served God by serving Him in them - which is nothing more nor less than she lived the Gospel with every
breath in her body.
.
Mother Teresa showed compassion for those who were less fortunate than she was. She gave them
food, lifted their spirits, and helped them survive. She is and was considered a hero to many people.
After her death, she was put on the short list for canonization, and in 2012 I believe she has already had
one miracle attributed to her, and has been beatified. Of course, she loved children.

6. .
The Church often says that the only real way to help people, the way to become a good spouse, parent,
teacher, or whatever, is to become a saint. Mother Teresa believed and lived this. She helped the poor
by becoming a saint.
.
The various concrete way that she did that was that she did the Will of God even when she didn't feel
as if God was there or approving of her. She cared for the poorest of the poor. She established
hospices and hospitals for the sick and dying, she started in Calcutta as she started a new religious order,
the Missionaries of Charity, which spread throughout the world. Today the Order still cares for the
poorest of the poor, the sick and dying. Mother Theresa and her nuns went out into the streets and
picked up the dying homeless to bring them to her hospice. They clean them, feed them, pray with
them, and serve them so that they spend their last days or hours in dignity. She and her Order treat
those dying of AIDS, the lepers, the untouchables, those whom nobody else will love and care for. She
saw Our Blessed Lord in everyone of them, in disguise, pleading for our help and love.
Answer
Well she did a variety of things like run orphanages and places for old crippled people who were the
"unwanted" of society so they could die peacefully and respectably. i think she may have helped or
opened some special hospitals, but you should look that up for yourself. the one thing that helped her
along through it all was relying on God for the finances and resources to keep moving forward
she gave her life to god that's one and she built orphanages and built like houses so people can stay
peacfully
She helped people all around the world.
people should have peace
well she changed many lives and from this day on the world wouldn't be like this if Mother Teresa did do
something back then.
she has helped nearly everyone and she is a very good person and she deserves alot of credit with what
she has done to people
Mother Teresa helped the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying children and people. she opened up
orphanages all around the world and did most of her work in Calcutta helping people in the slums.
Two websites you might try are listed below:
they were helping other people
She created multiple orphanages around the world.
She was important because she helped lots of people and looked after them and made them better if
they were ill. She also founded an orphanage for people without homes and those without parents.

7. How did Mother Teresa change the world?
She was a charity worker in India and also a nun. She founded Missionaries of charity in Kolkata, India.
For 45 years she was looking after the poor, sick, orphaned and dying it was a pretty depressing job. By
the 1970s she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due
in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her
humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her
death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV
and AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs,
orphanages and schools. She was a great help to the Indian society. She helped the poor to be strong. It
was Mother Teresa who said "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters
to create many ripples." That is the statement that joined millions of people in unity.