Anjeze Bojaxhiu aka Mother Teresa – Inspiration to the World

I believe it would be much rare if someone don’t remember the name “Mother Teresa”

Her Real name was Anjeze Bojaxhiu and most of us never knew about this. She will always be remembered by the name “Mother Teresa”.

Mother Theresa was a Roman Catholic nun born to Jesuist parents on August 27, 1910, who devoted her life to serving the poor and destitute around the world. Among her many accomplishments, were building a hospice center, as well as centers for blind and disabled people in India. At the time of her death, Missionaries of Charity was operating more than 700 missions in over 120 countries.

At the age of 18, she was given permission to join a group of nuns in Ireland. After a few months of training, with the Sisters of Loreto, she was then given permission to travel to India. Through the Bengal Mission she was sent to India. First to Darjeeling and then to Kolkata(Calcutta) to teach there at the Loreto Covent.

She experienced traumatic period in Kolkata during partition of India after Independence due to Hindu/Muslim violence. She left the convent in 1948 to live full-time among the poorest of Calcutta. Same year she opened a school for children in the slums in Kolkata. The Widespread poverty of Kolkata led her to start “The Missionaries of Charity”. The primary objective of this mission was to look after people, who nobody else was prepared to look after. Mother Teresa felt that serving others was a fundamental principle of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

She Chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. Spelled Teresa in Spanish she opted the same.

From then on she was known as Mother Teresa. The woman who joined the Charity were required to wear a white saree with a blue border out of respect to traditional Indian dress. Mother Teresa and her nuns served those who came to their doorstep with utmost devotion. In 1952, she opened her first home for the dying, which allowed people to die with dignity. Mother Teresa often spent time with those who were dying.

In 1979 she received the Noble Peace Prize for the work she has done to overcome poverty and distress. she was honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest award followed shortly later in 1983. She was among five prestigious recipients of an honorary citizenship of United States of America. Mother Teresa was also the recipient of the Padmashri awarded by the Indian Government and the only one who had received it despite not being born an Indian.

She died of a cardiac arrest in 1997 serving 50 years of her 87 years of long life span. Today there are over 700 Institutions operating all over the world.

Mother Teresa always believed that the most terrible of diseases was to feel unwanted and unloved. The cure for this disease could be bought by love and kindness and not by riches.

She will always be an inspiration to love and serve people.