Mother Teresa: Life, Faith, and Humanitarian Legacy

Introduction

When it comes to prominent religious figures throughout history, many people pay attention to the Pope and, for the most part, other men. However, many women do — and should — stand out from the rest, and Mother Teresa is one of those people. This paper chronicles her life, her faith, and her work over the course of her lifetime. She has been gone from this earth, at least physically, for some time now, but her legacy lives on. While many are dismissive of her contributions or some of the positions she held, Mother Teresa has a permanent place etched in the history of the Christian church as well as in world history more broadly.

Early Life and Family Background

Mother Teresa was born on August 27, 1910, in the city of Skopje, located in present-day Macedonia. She was baptized the very day after her birth — as is common among Catholic families — under the name Agnes Gonsha Bojaxhiu. Her parents were Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, both of Albanian descent. Her father worked in the construction industry and in the trading of medicines. Both parents were devout Catholics and were heavily involved in the church, as well as in the Albanian peace movement.

Mother Teresa's father died very suddenly when she was only eight years old. To this day, it remains unclear precisely what happened, but many have surmised that he was poisoned by a political enemy. Still a young child, Teresa responded to this sudden loss by becoming much closer to her mother. Her mother made it a point to teach her daughter how to be committed to charity. To practice what she preached, Teresa's mother would welcome anyone who was destitute to dine with the family — no small gesture, given that the family was by no means wealthy, especially in the wake of the father's death.

Teresa attended a primary school run by a convent. She sang in the choir, and her congregation made an annual pilgrimage to the Black Madonna in Letnice. One of those trips led Teresa to believe that religious life and assisting the poor were her calling. In 1928, at the age of 18, she became a nun and set off to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin, Ireland. It was at that point she took the name Sister Mary Teresa, named after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Religious Vocation and Journey to India

As noted in the biographical summary above, Teresa then went to India. She took her Final Profession of Vows in 1937, which included a vow of poverty. She taught at Saint Mary's in Calcutta until 1944, when she became the principal.

The "call within a call" was Teresa's perception that she should abandon her teaching and go instead to aid the sickest and the poorest in the streets of Calcutta. Having earlier taken a vow of obedience, she could not make such a move unilaterally — she required the approval of the church. It took a year and a half, but she finally received permission in January 1948. The permission was granted by Archbishop Ferdinand Perier. It was at this point that she began wearing the blue-and-white sari that would become her signature garment for the rest of her life. She undertook six months of medical training and then ventured into the heart of the Calcutta slums (Biography, 2016).

As a nun, Mother Teresa was the founder of what came to be known as the Missionaries of Charity, part of the larger Roman Catholic Church. Her congregation of women was dedicated to helping the poor in the areas where they operated. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. She died in September 1997 and was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003. In December 2015, Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to her, clearing the way for her canonization — the formal process by which the Church declares a person a saint (Biography, 2016).

Conclusion

The impacts and waves created by Mother Teresa over the course of her life are nothing short of astounding. She grew up in a very devout family, and her father's apparent murder did not dissuade her or her mother from being generous and helpful to the poor. Indeed, those who are looking for a meaningful example of a life well-lived need not look much further than her, or those who lived in a similar way. While some of her positions were considered extreme by certain observers, they were consistent with the teachings of the church and with the scriptures she had undoubtedly internalized throughout her life.

References

American Catholic. (2016). Mother Teresa biography. Americancatholic.org. Retrieved 1 March 2016, from http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Teresa/WhoWasTeresa.aspx

Biography. (2016). Mother Teresa. Biography.com. Retrieved 1 March 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/mother-teresa-9504160#controversy

Vatican. (2016). Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997), biography. Vatican.va. Retrieved 1 March 2016, from