Mother Teresa Saint Teresa of Calcutta, MC |
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Virgin, consecrated religious, nun | |
Born | Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu 26 August 1910 Üsküp, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (modern Skopje, Republic of Macedonia) |
Died | 5 September 1997 Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
(aged 87)
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Beatified | 19 October 2003, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
Canonized | 4 September 2016, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Francis |
Major shrine | Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
Feast | 5 September |
Attributes | |
Patronage |
Mother Teresa, MC | |
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Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Institute |
Sisters of Loreto (1928–1948) Missionaries of Charity (1950–1997) |
Personal | |
Nationality |
Ottoman subject (1910–1912) Serbian subject (1912–1915) Bulgarian subject (1915–1918) Yugoslavian subject (1918–1943) Yugoslavian citizen (1943–1948) Indian subject (1948–1950) Indian citizen (1950–1997) Albanian citizen (1991–1997) |
Senior posting | |
Title | Superior general |
Period in office | 1950–1997 |
Successor | Sr. Nirmala Joshi, MC |
Signature |
Mother Teresa's 1979 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech |
Mother Teresa MC, known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu; Albanian: [aˈɲɛzə ˈɡɔndʒɛ bɔjaˈdʒiu]; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was an Albanian-IndianRoman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Macedonia for eighteen years she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.
In 1950 Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation which had over 4,500 sisters and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's- and family-counselling programmes; orphanages, and schools. Members, who take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, also profess a fourth vow: to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor".
Teresa received a number of honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She was canonised (recognised by the church as a saint) on 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day.