Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Skopje, Yugoslavia and was called to a religious life from a young age. She joined the Sisters of Loretto as a nun and in 1950 founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India to care for the poor and sick. Over her lifetime, she expanded the Missionaries of Charity's work to help people in over 100 countries. She received numerous honors for her humanitarian work, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. Mother Teresa stepped down as head of the Missionaries of Charity in 1997 due to failing health and died later that year in Calcutta at age 87.