Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic church dedicated to helping the poor. Considered one of the most active people of the 20th century, he was ordained as Santa Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

Who was Mother Teresa?

Nun and missionary Mother Teresa, better known as the Catholic Church as Santa Teresa of Calcutta, dedicated her life to caring for the sick and the poor. Born in Macedonia to parents of Albanian descent and teaching in India for 17 years, Mother Teresa heard a "phone call" in 1946. His order established a hospice; for the blind, the elderly and the disabled; and a colony of lepers.

In 1979, Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize for her charitable work. She died in September 1997 and was honored in October 2003. In December 2015, Pope Francis saw the second miracle performed by Mother Teresa, and opened the way for her to be ordained as September 4, 2016.

Mother Teresa's family and a small life

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, the present capital of the Republic of Macedonia. The next day, she was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.

Mother Teresa's parents, Nikola and Dhanafile Bojaxhiu, were of Albanian descent; His father was a businessman who worked as a construction contractor and a supplier of medicines and other goods. The Bojaxhius family was a devout Catholic family, and Nikola was deeply involved in the local church and city politics as a champion of Albanian independence.

In 1919, while Mother Teresa - then Agnes - was only eight years old, her father suddenly fell ill and died. Although the cause of his death is still unknown, many have concluded that he was poisoned by political enemies.

After her father's death, Agnes became very close to her mother, a devout and compassionate woman who instilled in her daughter a deep commitment to help the poor. Although he was not rich at all, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city's poor to dine with his family. "My child, never eat one mouth unless you share it with others," she advised her daughter. When Agnes asked who these people were eating with, her mother replied in the same way, "Some of them are our relationships, but they are all our people."

Education and Quantity

Agnes attended the monastery's primary school and then the government-run schools. As a girl, she sang in the local choir Sacred Heart and was often asked to sing solo. The church made an annual trip to the Black Madonna Church in Letnice, and it was on this one trip at the age of 12 that she first experienced religious life. Six years later, in 1928, 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and traveled to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin. It was there that she adopted the name Sister Mary Teresa after Santa Thérèse of Lisieux.

A year later, Sister Mary Teresa moved to Darjeeling, India, a time of novitiate; in May 1931, he made his First Profession of Vows. After that, she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at St Mary's High School for Girls, a school run by Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching girls from the poorest Bengali families in the city. Sister Teresa learned to speak Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and devoted herself to reducing girls' poverty through education.

On May 24, 1937, he embarked on His Last Work of Promises in a life of poverty, purity and obedience. As was Loreto's Nazarene tradition, she took the title "Mother" when making her last vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued her teaching at Saint Mary's, and in 1944, she became the school's principal. Through his grace, generosity and unwavering commitment to the education of his disciples, he tried to lead them to a life of devotion to Christ. "Give me the strength to be the light of their lives, so that I may finally lead them to you," he wrote in prayer.

Drive Inside the Fence '

On September 10, 1946, Mother Teresa heard a second call, a "telephone call" that would change her life forever. He had boarded a train from Calcutta to the Himalayan hills fleeing when he said that Christ spoke to him and told him to stop teaching and to work in the Calcutta slums to help the very poor and most sick people in the city.

As Mother Teresa took the oath of allegiance, she could not leave her palace without official permission. After about a year and a half of recruitment, in January 1948 he finally received permission to make this new vocation. In August, donating a blue and white sari to wear in public for the rest of her life, she left the Loreto palace and wandered into town. After six months of basic medical training, he traveled for the first time to the Calcutta informal settlement without the aid of "unwanted, unwanted, neglected."

Missionaries of Charity

Mama Teresa quickly translated her call for concrete actions to help the city's poor. He started an open school and established a home for the poor in a dilapidated building and convinced the city government to donate his work. In October 1950, he gained the official recognition of a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, founded by only a few members - most of whom were teachers or students of St.

As the congregations of her congregation grew and donations came in from India and around the world, the scale of Mother Teresa's relief efforts greatly increased. During the 1950s and 1960s, he established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a network of health clinics.

In 1971, Mother Teresa traveled to New York City to open her first American gift house, and in the summer of 1982, she traveled privately to Beirut, Lebanon, where she crossed between Christian East Beirut and Muslim West Beirut to help children of both religions. In 1985, Mother Teresa returned to New York and spoke at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly. While there, he also opened the Gift of Love, a home for those living with HIV / AIDS.

Awards and tribute to Mama Teresa

In February 1965, Pope Paul VI awarded the Decree of Praise to the Missionaries of Charity, which inspired Mother Teresa to begin worldwide expansion. At the time of her death in 1997, Charity's missionaries numbered more than 4,000 - more than a thousand volunteer volunteers - and 610 foundations in 123 countries around the world.

The Decision of Praise was just the beginning, as Mother Teresa received various awards for her tireless and practical help. He was awarded the Jewel of India, the highest honor bestowed on Indian citizens, and the now-defunct Soviet Union Gold Medal of Peace. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in "bringing relief to the poor."

Criticism of Mother Teresa

Without this widespread praise, Mother Teresa's life and work did not go unnoticed. In particular, he criticized his vocal acceptance of some of the most controversial teachings of the Catholic Church, such as contraception and abortion. "I feel like the biggest obstacle to peace today is abortion," Mama Teresa said in her 1979 Nobel speech.

In 1995, he publicly called for a "no" vote in the Irish referendum to end the country's constitutional ban on divorce and remarriage. The strongest criticism of Mother Teresa can be found in Christopher Hitchens' book The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, in which Hitchens claimed that Mother Teresa promoted poverty in her own right and gave a reason for the preservation of institutions and beliefs.