Mother Teresa

From Skopje to religious life in India

Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje in 1910, Mother Teresa came from an Albanian family and entered the Sisters of Loreto as a young woman. She travelled to India in 1929 and worked in education in Calcutta, now Kolkata. Her later public identity developed within Catholic religious life rather than a medical or governmental career.

A change in mission

After years as a teacher, she sought permission to work beyond the convent among people living in severe poverty. The Missionaries of Charity was founded in 1950. Its approach emphasized direct care and religious service, creating an organization through which a personal vocation became a continuing institutional activity carried out by a wider community of sisters and collaborators.

Kolkata and the growth of the organization

Homes and charitable services established in Kolkata became the best-known expression of the order’s work. Its activities later expanded internationally. Accounts of this development should distinguish the founder’s public image from the work of staff, volunteers and local partners. An international religious organization cannot be understood solely through the actions or intentions attributed to one individual.

Nobel recognition and public debate

The 1979 Nobel Peace Prize brought exceptional visibility to Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. Her explicitly Catholic understanding of service, including views on reproductive questions, was part of her public platform. The award is evidence of international recognition; it is not an independent assessment of every institution’s standards or a reason to treat religious conviction as universally shared.

Death, canonization and the historical record

Mother Teresa died in Kolkata in 1997 and was canonized by the Catholic Church in 2016. Her continuing significance includes the expansion of faith-based humanitarian work and the public attention directed towards people who were often socially excluded. A historical biography distinguishes documented organizational milestones, the Church’s religious recognition and the wider questions involved in assessing charitable institutions.

Selected works & milestones