Advertisement

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Advertisement

Saint Teresa of Calcutta Famous memorial

Original Name
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
Birth
Skopje, Greater Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia
Death
5 Sep 1997 (aged 87)
Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Burial
Calcutta, West Bengal, India Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
Roman Catholic Saint, Nobel Prize Laureate. 1979 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Peace.

Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was born to a Catholic Albanian family in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. At 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto, a community of Irish nuns with a mission in Calcutta, India. After training in Dublin, Ireland, and Darjeeling, India, she took her vows as a nun taking the name Teresa after Saint Teresa de Jesus in 1928 and was assigned to a Calcutta convent.

During a train ride in 1946, as she looked out over the poverty in Calcutta, she vowed to serve the poorest of poor, and eventually founded the Missionaries of Charity. She was so respected that major airlines had a standing free reservation for her and her traveling companions as she moved about the world raising money for the order and overseeing her empire of good works.

At the time of her death, the order was operating 517 schools, clinics, and hospices in more than 100 countries with over 4,000 nuns. Her final resting place is in a long, narrow room, which once served as the convent's dining room. An entry has been opened to the street which allows the public to visit. Mother Teresa was hailed as a "living saint" during her decades of service in Calcutta's slums. She was canonized in September of 2016.
Roman Catholic Saint, Nobel Prize Laureate. 1979 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Peace.

Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was born to a Catholic Albanian family in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. At 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto, a community of Irish nuns with a mission in Calcutta, India. After training in Dublin, Ireland, and Darjeeling, India, she took her vows as a nun taking the name Teresa after Saint Teresa de Jesus in 1928 and was assigned to a Calcutta convent.

During a train ride in 1946, as she looked out over the poverty in Calcutta, she vowed to serve the poorest of poor, and eventually founded the Missionaries of Charity. She was so respected that major airlines had a standing free reservation for her and her traveling companions as she moved about the world raising money for the order and overseeing her empire of good works.

At the time of her death, the order was operating 517 schools, clinics, and hospices in more than 100 countries with over 4,000 nuns. Her final resting place is in a long, narrow room, which once served as the convent's dining room. An entry has been opened to the street which allows the public to visit. Mother Teresa was hailed as a "living saint" during her decades of service in Calcutta's slums. She was canonized in September of 2016.

Advertisement

Advertisement

How famous was Saint Teresa of Calcutta ?

Current rating: 4.88905 out of 5 stars

676 votes

Sign-in to cast your vote.

  • Maintained by: Find a Grave
  • Added: Sep 5, 2000
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12299/teresa_of_calcutta: accessed ), memorial page for Saint Teresa of Calcutta (26 Aug 1910–5 Sep 1997), Find a Grave Memorial ID 12299, citing Mother House Of the Missionaries Of Charity, Calcutta, West Bengal, India; Maintained by Find a Grave.