8.1 Special occasions

Mother Theresa was born in Skopje in 1910. As a young girl, she felt a calling to become a nun and serve through helping the poor.
At the age of 18, she joined a group of nuns in Ireland. After a few months of training she travelled to India. She took her religious vows in 1931.

When she came to India, she started working as a teacher. Unfortunately, the poverty of Calcutta made an impact on Mother Theresa, so she started a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity”.
She wanted to look after people, who had nobody.

While in Calcutta, Mother Theresa went through two rough periods.
The first was the Bengal famine of 1943 and the second was the Hindu/Muslim violence in 1946. In 1948, she left the convent to live among the poorest people of Calcutta.

For many years, Mother Theresa survived on minimal income and lacking food, and she often begged for money and funds.
After some time, Indian politicians started noticing Mother Theresa and the efforts she made to help the poorest.

She also spent a lot of her time with dying people, so in 1952 she opened the first home for the dying.
This changed the local community a great deal since she gave back dignity to the most neglected people. They died knowing that someone cared for them.

Her work spread globally. By 2013, 700 missions were opened in over 130 countries. This included opening orphanages for abandoned children and hospices for people with terminal diseases.

In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She came to the ceremony, but she asked the Committee to use the funds they usually spend on banquets and give them to the poor she fought for.

For the last two decades Mother Theresa had severe health problems, but she continued working for the different branches of The Missionaries of Charity.
Until the very end she kept travelling around the world and helping those in need.

In the last few years of her life, she met Princess Diana in New York and the two women who were extremely active in charity work died within a week of each other.
Mother Theresa was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

This great woman was a Catholic but never tried to convert anybody to her own faith. Even though she respected everybody’s faith, she had strict beliefs concerning divorce and abortion.

She never changed her beliefs even though they weren’t always popular. She died in 1997 becoming a symbol of charitable and dedicated work for the poor ones, the ill ones and the abandoned ones.