St. Teresa of Calcutta
Mother Teresa or Agnes Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje, Macedonia on August 16, 1910. Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia at the time which was a communist country that did not allow people to go to church, and pray to God. If anyone saw people going to church or praying out in public, they would have to tell the police officers to either put them in jail or get killed for believing in the right true God. Mother Teresa’s Parents are Nikola, dranafile Bojaxhiu. She had a sister named Aga Bojaxhiu, and a brother named Lazar Bojaxhiu that all believed in God secretly away from the government so they would not get in trouble for believing in God and his teachings. Her Father Nikola Bojaxhiu had a job which was to be in charge of all the construction in the area. Nikola Bojaxhiu was a catholic that would try to go to the local church in Macedonia and believed that Albania should be independent from turkey. Even though there was the government trying to stop people from believing Mother Teresa never gave up on God through the rough times in her life. When she turned eight her father was sick and died which made her grow closer to her mom since she had no one else in her life that could give her guidelines on living better. Many people think that her father was poisoned since he had many enemies that did not like him for his political thoughts for Albania’s independence. When Mother Teresa turned twelve, she went to a church called “The Black Madonna” after the trip she never felt closer to God until then. She had a religious calling six years after, so she abandoned her family so she can go to Ireland and to become a nun in 1928. She later went into the Sisters of Loreto which is in Dublin and took the name Sister Mary Teresa for the Saint Therese of Lisieux. In Ireland, she helped many of the sick, poor, and all that required help. After helping in Ireland, she wanted to help more around the world to show that she cares for the people that God created. After going to Ireland, she went to Darjeeling, India in 1929. While being in India she made her profession of vows in May of 1931. Afterward, she moved to Calcutta and taught in a school named Saint Mary High School only for girls. The school was principled by the Loreto Sisters. She wanted to help everyone from the poorest parts of India. Being in Calcutta Sister Mary Teresa took her final vows on May 24, 1937. The vows included poverty, chastity, and obedience. She took the name “mother” because she cared for everyone and treated everyone equally during her time in Calcutta. She said in Calcutta “all of the kids that I take care of are all of my kids.” After teaching at St. Mary’s she turned into the principal of the school in 1944. She wrote a prayer for herself in the time of need saying “Give me the strength to be ever the light of their lives, so that I may lead them at last to you,”. This prayer that she prayed helped her go throughout the day to teach all the girls and to be faithful to Jesus all through their lives. In 1946 she got a second calling from God. While on the train to Calcutta she said that God came to her and said to help the poorest people in the world. So, in January 1948 she went to go and complete that calling from God. She then changed her outfit and cared for the insufferable, unwelcomed, and abandoned. While in India she got different awards such as a Padma Shri, Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding Bharat Ratna. She then got India’s highest civilian award from the government of India as a sign of respect for what she did for India. In 1971 she was presented with the first Pope John XXII peace prize for her noble deeds for helping the poor, being part of big charity events that helped with everyone in need and her marvelous determination for world peace. She then was bestowed with a noble peace prize in 1979 for helping poverty. She had many fatal heart attacks in the 1980s and went back to Calcutta to tell everyone that this will be her last moments being alive since her heart was very weak and couldn’t stay alive for much longer. She died on September 5, 1997, she was later beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, and finally was canonized a saint by Pope Francis on 2016 September 4. She is now known as St. Teresa of Calcutta. St. Teresa of Calcutta is an inspiration to me for many reasons. A reason she is an inspiration for me is that she abandoned her family in Albania to go pursue her callings from God which is very tough on her since she did not see them for a very long time. She is an inspiration because she loved others like Jesus which inspires me because it shows even though that everyone is different it does not mean that we have to treat them any differently than we treat someone that we love. She inspires me to go to charity events that help the poor through the time of need even though it looks like a struggle it shows that we can be more like Mother Teresa even if we are just helping out small charity events in New York. She lets me put my full trust in God and to never to lose faith in him because he will always have a plan for us no matter what we say or do that is wrong. Even though Mother Teresa died and is not here with us today she has touched people’s hearts if they are catholic or non-Catholic. Even though a lot of us cannot be like her we are inspired to try to do good for the people that do not have the resources that we have. She shows us that even though she started very little in helping others it helped her at the end because she was recognized for helping everyone that was in need.
Works Cited
- “Who Was Mother Teresa? Everything You Need to Know.” Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline, https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mother-teresa-24.php.
- “Mother Teresa.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 26 Aug. 2019, https://www.biography.com/people/mother-teresa-9504160.
- “The Nobel Peace Prize 1979.” NobelPrize.org, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/biographical/.
- Catholic Online. “Mother Teresa of Calcutta.” Catholic Online, https://www.catholic.org/clife/teresa/.
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