Tuesday 27 August 2013

Saint of the Gutters

Mother Teresa's 103rd birthday August 26 
 
  • BIRTH DATE: August 26, 1910
  • DEATH DATE: September 05, 1997
  • EDUCATION: Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Skopje, Macedonia
  • PLACE OF DEATH: Calcutta, India
  • Originally: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
 It was on August 26, 1910 when God blessed this earth with Mother Teresa. She was an Albanian–born Indian Roman Catholic nun. She was born on August 26 in Skopje but she considered August 27, the day she was baptised, to be her ‘true birthday’.
 
  
She was born to Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Albania, to a financially comfortable family – they lived in one of the two houses they owned. Her father died when she was 8 years old, which ended her family’s financial security.
When she was 18 years old, Agnes left home and joined the Sisters of Loreto in Rathfarnham, Ireland.

 
Although she lived to be 87 years old, she never saw her mother or sister again after the day she left for Ireland.




After a year learning English in Ireland, Agnes transferred to the Sisters of Loreto convent in Darjeeling, India.

 

She took her vows as a nun in 1931, and that’s when she chose the name Teresa – to honor Saints Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila.





In 1946, Teresa traveled to Darjeeling for a retreat. It was on that journey that she realized what her true calling was: “I heard the call to give up all and follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”



It took two years of preparation before she was able to begin doing the work she felt compelled to do. She needed to receive permission from the Sisters of Loreto to leave the order – while retaining her vows – as well as permission from the Archbishop of Calcutta to live and work among the poor. She also prepared by taking a nursing course.



In 1948, Teresa set aside her nun’s habit – adopting instead the simple sari and sandals worn by the women she would be living among – and moved to a small rented hovel in the slums to begin her work.

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