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Mother Teresa was a wonderful woman and a great influence on the world today.
She was born in 1910 in Macedonia with the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was
born into a family of deeply religious Catholics. Agnes felt she got the calling
to work for God at the young age of fourteen. She joined the Loreto order and
went to Bengal, India, to start her studies. In 1937, Agnes took her final vows
to become a nun and has done much great work in the world since. Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu was born on August 27, 1910 to Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu in Skopje,
Macedonia. Drana and Nikola were Albanian and both were very deeply religious
Roman Catholics. Nikola was a popular merchant and a partner to an Italian
merchant. He owned several houses and was a member of the Skopje town council.
Whenever Agnes’ father would return from a trip, he would always bring his
children presents. Also, he promoted his daughters’ education, which was
uncommon in that time period. Nikola also was involved in an underground
organization that worked to gain independence for the Albanians from the Ottoman
Turks, who ruled Macedonia around the time Agnes was born. Agnes grew up around
much fighting. When she was born, there were Albanian protests against the
Turkish government. When she was two, she witnessed the First Balkan War. In
that war, the Ottomans were defeated, but Macedonia was divided among the
conquerors: Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegero, and Serbia. The city of Skopje was
distributed to Serbia. Albania received its independence in 1912, but Nikola
continued his nationalist work. He joined a movement determined to incorporate
Serbia into the Albanian nation. In 1914, when Agnes was only four years old,
World War I began. In 1918, her father was killed. Some people believe that he
was poisoned by enemies. Many people mourned his death because of his kindness
and generosity. Drana Bojaxhiu and the family were left with little money and no
means of income. Drana worked hard to provide for her family. To get enough
money, she became a dressmaker. Even though she had to work extra hard to make
ends meet, Drana still found time and money to give to the lonely. When Agnes
was young, she used to go on trips with her mother to visit the elderly, sick,
and the poor. It is said that their mother’s generosity may have had the
greatest influence on Agnes, her sister, and her brother. Agnes was the youngest
of the three children. Her older brother was named Lazar and her older sister
was Aga. Aga was five years older than Agnes. Agnes loved reading books, saying
prayers, and thinking. She also liked to sing and write poems about her faith.
Agnes learned her faith from her mother. There was a sign in the front room of
their house that read: In this house, no one must speak against another. Drana
passed down to her children many values. She believed that the Lord’s work was
reward enough in itself and that you should serve God in a practical, helpful
way. Agnes had thought about being a teacher when she was younger, but at the
age of twelve, she knew she wanted to lead a religious life. When Agnes was only
fourteen, she knew she wanted to be a missionary nun. At age eighteen, Agnes
joined the Loreto order of nuns. In September of 1928, she left her family and
everything she knew to serve God at the Loreto Abbey in Dublin Ireland. There,
she learned how to speak English. In November, she went to India to teach
English in an Indian school.
In 1929, Agnes started her novitiate in an Abbey in
Darjeeling, and abbey in the foothills of the Himalayas. A novitiate is the time
a nun spends studying, praying, and contemplating before she takes her vows. On
May 24, 1931, Agnes took her first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She
took her name after St. Therese, the patron saint of missionaries. On May 14,
1937, Teresa took her final vows, promising to serve God for the rest of her
life. Teresa eventually became the principal of Loreto Entally, a school in
Entally (a district of Calcutta) where she taught history and geography.
Everyday, Teresa would look out of the convent to the streets of Calcutta. She
longed to help the starving and dying people on the streets. She wasn’t allowed
to because the Loreto order of nuns had a rule that the nuns couldn’t leave the
convent unless they were seriously ill. In August, 1946, Sister Teresa could
stand it no longer. A four-day riot broke out in Calcutta between the Muslims
and the Hindus. Because of this, food delivery was stopped. Sister Teresa went
out to find food for her hundreds of students. In the riot, 5000 Calcuttans were
killed and an additional 15000 were injured. She met some soldiers who gave her
some bags of food. They warned her to stay off the streets, but she would soon
experience another call from God. On September 10, 1946, Sister Teresa
experienced a call within a call on an annual retreat. She was convinced that
God wanted her to reach out to the poor. She said, I was to leave the convent
and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail it would
have been to break the faith. In 1947, Sister Teresa was granted permission to
leave the Loreto order of nuns. On August 16, 1948, Sister Teresa set out on the
dirty streets of Calcutta wearing a simple cotton sari decorated with a blue
border. Eventually, her organization would adopt this outfit as their habit.
Leaving the Loreto Abbey was very hard for Sister Teresa. She says that that was
one of the greatest sacrifices she had ever made.
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