Mother Theresa (1910-1997)
Born in Macedonia as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Mother Theresa felt the call from God to be a missionary at a very early age. Only 18 years old, she left her home to join an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. She took her initial vows as a nun on May 24, 1931. From 1931-1948 she taught in a convent school in Calcutta, India. However in 1948, she received permission to leave the convent to work among the worst neighborhoods in Calcutta, to serve among the poorest of the poor.
Two years later, she started her own order of nuns, “The Society of Missionaries of Charity”, with the goal of loving and caring for those that no one looks after in all parts of the world. Today, the religious order she founded, with 570 missions, 4,000 nuns and 100,000 volunteers, helps the poorest in Latin America, Asia and Africa through relief work. They also have houses for AID victims, the homeless and alcoholics. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
