Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997) also known as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, MC, was an Albanian Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary. She was born in Skopje (modern Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet in the Ottoman Empire. After having lived in Macedonia for some eighteen years, she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and was active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools. Members must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, as well as a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor". Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". A second miracle was credited to her intercession by Pope Francis, in December 2015, paving the way for her to be recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was widely admired by many for her charitable works. She was both praised and criticized for her pro-life views. She also received criticism for conditions in the hospices for which she was responsible. Her official biography was written by an Indian civil servant, Navin Chawla, and published in 1992. Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by 1986 Túrelio (via Wikimedia-Commons), 1986 / , via Wikimedia Commons.