Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia, in the former Yugoslavia, she was the youngest of three children. Her family was of Albanian descent. In her teens, Agnes became a member of a youth group in her local parish called Sodality. Through her involvement with their activities guided by a Jesuit priest, Agnes became interested in missionaries.

 

When she was very young, no more than twelve years old, she felt strongly the call of God and experienced the desire to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ and prayed about it for six years.

One afternoon during the feast of the Assumption she was at the feet of the Lady of Letnice (in Skopje) where she first heard the divine call, convincing her to serve God and to devote myself to His service.  It was the turning point in her life when she took the decision to wholly devote herself to God through religious life. 

At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje in responded to the first call of a vocation as a Catholic missionary nun and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community known for their missionary work in India.

After a few months' training in Dublin, Ireland she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her vows as a Sister of Loretto, choosing the name Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.  From 1931 Sister Teresa taught geography and cathechism at St. Mary's in Calcutta, mostly consisting of children from middle class society. She loved teaching and in Loreto she was the happiest nun in the world.

In 1944, she became the principal of St. Mary's High School. Soon Sister Teresa contracted tuberculosis, was unable to continue teaching and was sent to Darjeeling for rest and recuperation. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her second call -- "the call within the call" – that she was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. It was a divine order. The suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 the year she got her Indian citizenship she received permission from Vatican to leave the Sisters of Loretto and pursue her calling under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Calcutta and to devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Leaving Loretto was her greatest sacrifice, and the most difficult thing she had ever done.  It was much more difficult than to leave her family and country to enter religious life. After leaving Loretto, she was on the street, with no shelter, no company, no helper, no money, no employment, no promise, no guarantee and no security. She did not lose faith and prayed for Divine Providence. Sister Teresa started an open-air school in the slums to teach the children of the poor. She also learned basic medicine and went into the homes of the sick to treat them. Soon young girls, former students from Loreto, began to join her. They shed off their expensive saris with great satisfaction in order to put on our humble cotton ones. This first group was about twelve, by the time the voluntary helpers and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work. They found men, women, and children dying on the streets who were rejected by local hospitals. The group rented a room so they could care for helpless people otherwise condemned to die in the gutter. In 1950, the Holy Father approved of the new congregation to be established by the Church as a Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese. It was known as the Missionaries of Charity whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. Since then, girls from all over the world have been joining the Congregation.

In the international arena, during the siege of Beirut in 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Mother Teresa also travelled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her native Albania and opened a home in Tirana. Ink

Her labor made her so worthy that her work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions the first been recognised by the Indian government more than a third of a century earlier when she was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962 and in the same year Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia.. She continued to receive major awards in successive decades including, in 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, Prize of the Good Samaritan, Boston,  Kennedy Prize, in 1972 Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, Koruna Dut, angel of charity, 1973 Templeton Prize, 1974 Mater et Magistra, 1975 Albert Schweitzer International Prize, 1977 Honorary PhD in Theology ( Doctor Honoris Causa in Theology ), University of Cambridge, England, 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, 1980 India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. In 1982 Honorary PhD ( Doctor Honoris Causa ) from the Catholic University Brussels, Belgium, 1985 Presidential Metal of Freedom, 1996 Honorary U.S. citizenship (only the 4th person to receive this honor). She also received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Mother Teresa accepted all these awards on behalf of the poor, using any money that accompanied them to fund her centers.

By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. Many films were made on her life with the poors and down-trodden. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God, which was filmed by Malcolm Muggeridge and his 1971 book of the same title. Other highly acclaimed movies on were Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor is a 1997 film directed by Kevin Connor starring Geraldine Chaplin. It won an award at the 1998 Art Film Festival. Also Mother Teresa's life was portrayed in the 2003 Italian television miniseries Madre Teresa starring Olivia Hussey as Mother Teresa. It was later released internationally as a television film Mother Teresa of Calcutta and received a CAMIE award in 2007.

Mother Teresa gained worldwide acclaim with her tireless efforts on behalf of world peace and numerous humanitarian works inspiring a variety of commemorations. She has been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures and roads named after her. Various tributes have been published in newspapers and magazines world wide. During her lifetime Mother Teresa wrote many inspirational  books such as “The Best Gift is Love: Meditations by Mother Teresa; Mother Teresa; 1993 “ “My Life For the Poor; Mother Teresa; 1996” “One Heart Full of Love; Mother Teresa; 1988” and  “Reaching Out in Love: Stories Told by Mother Teresa; Mother Teresa; 1999”.

Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa was forced to scale back her activities in 1990 because of declining health. On March 13 1997, she stepped down as head of the order and Sister Nirmala was chosen to succeed her as leader of the Missionaries of Charity. On September 5, 1997, at the age of 87, the best loved woman of the century passed away. Her funeral service was on September 13, 1997, the 51st anniversary of her receiving her divine mission from God.

For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II thereby bestowing on her the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta on 19 October 2003.

Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities. In tribute, Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that she was "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity." The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar said: "She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world." During her lifetime and after her death, Mother Teresa was consistently found by Gallup to be the single most widely admired person in the US, and in 1999 was ranked as the "most admired person of the 20th century" by a poll in the US. Mother Teresa was truly a living saint and one of the most acclaimed holy people of all time.