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Introduction

The Great Nurse of Humanity, the Noble Woman Mother Teresa—a name symbolizing love, peace and shelter. Mother Teresa is the last heir of all the great human beings who have suffered endlessly and sacrificed their lives to free people from oppression, exploitation and cruelty. Such people are rare in today’s age.

Date of Birth and Childhood

Year of Death of Florence Nightingale. Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910 in an Albanian Roman Catholic farming family. That place was Skopje, a small village in the southern part of what was then Yugoslavia. No one has a relationship with anyone, but it seems as if Nightingale has passed the lamp of peace, service and care in Mother Teresa’s hand without anyone noticing. In the hands of his rightful successor. Mother Teresa is a living icon of love, compassion, kindness, service and care.

His father’s name is Nicolas Bozaxhiu, mother’s name is Dronafile. His father Bojazhiu was a grocer by profession. He named the daughter Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu .

Florence Nightingale Wounded Crippled Helpless Crying Soldier & Florence Nightingale, a noble woman of the nineteenth century, was called ‘Lady. By serving the people, how many people have saved the lamp of life from being extinguished. Similarly, another nightingale has constantly given his love, compassion, peace and service to this metropolis of Kolkata, this subcontinent. The worthy successor of Florence Nightingale is this noble woman Mother Teresa.

This poor Albanian couple never imagined that their very quiet daughter would one day dedicate her life to realizing her dream of alleviating the world’s suffering. Little did they know the power that the little girl used to pray with her eyes closed before the pictures of the merciful Jesus and Mother Mary. This silent prayer to God was the source of all Mother’s strength. Even in later life, no matter how busy he was, he observed the prayer time with almost military strictness. The Agnes had two sisters and a brother. One of his legs was weak. A veil of shame surrounded him all the time for this physical deformity. Agnes became fatherless at the age of seven. In Yugoslavia, which was wounded by the First World War, his mother raised her child with great difficulty. It was through her mother’s inspiration that Agnes gained faith in kindness to the poor and devotion to God. He was attracted to religious activities from a young age.

Education

While attending public school in Skopje, Agnes was drawn to the missionary work of the Sodality. He used to read Sangh papers regularly. Various news of India were published in that newspaper. In his own words, “At the age of twelve I first knew I had a vocation to help the poor. I wanted to be a missionary. Letters from the Jesuits of Yugoslavia were read aloud in the Skopje public school class. In all those letters, there was a special mention of Kolkata. Hearing all that, Agnes became attracted to Kolkata.

Joining the Loreto Society

Mother Teresa came to know about the Loreto Society of Ireland working in India. He contacted the head office of Loreto Sangha in Dublin. Then with his mother’s permission he went to Bathernham in Ireland and joined the Loreto Sangha.

Mother Teresa came to Calcutta, India in 1928 at the age of 18 to serve as a missionary. Loretta, a noble woman nurse from Ireland, inspired him to dedicate himself to this service.

The first to touch the soil of Bengal welcomed him. From that first day, Agnes became a person of Bengal in her mind and soul. She had not yet become a full-fledged nun. He was sent to Darjeeling to complete his apprenticeship. After completing the two-year course, she took the nun’s vow. Returned to Calcutta as Sister Agnes.

Career

Mother Teresa Entali was appointed as a teacher in the Bengali Department of St. Mary’s School. His subjects were geography and history. She was a teacher of that school for twenty years. 1942 AD became the principal of that school. While teaching at the school, the poverty of the residents of the nearby Motijheel slum, the suffering of the children deeply disturbed him. It was the time of World War II.

The city of Calcutta was suffering from man-made famine. In the hope of two handfuls of rice, in the hope of a rice starch, village people are flocking to Kolkata in droves, starving to death by eating bad food. Sister Agnes began her work at this time. He soon realized that holding back ties does not serve the poor. He has to come out of the safe life of four walls to stand next to the poor and hungry people of today with hope and hope.

Spiritual Life

On September 10, 1946 AD, he realized a miracle while going to Darjeeling. He heard God’s revelation. Talking about this realization, Mother herself said, “…a call within a call ………. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor, while living among them.”

If you want to serve the poor, you have to do it from among the poor. Mother would always remember the day of receiving this order from God. He used to say the day of decision – the day of inspiration. That was the beginning of the transformation from Sister Agnes to Mother Teresa.

Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother observes this day as Inspiration Day. Sangh thinks that their Sangh was founded on 10th September 1946 AD. With permission from the Mother Superior, Agnes left Loreto. Loreto left the robes of the nuns and picked up a thick blue sari. On that day, his possessions were five rupees, a Bible, a crucifix and a rosary.

And with it was unimaginable morale and dependence on God. She changed her paternal name to Teresa. Sister Teresa Saint Teresa of France died in 1897 AD at the age of 24. This poor nun is Mother Teresa’s mentor. I need to build myself up a bit more before I can fully get down to work. Went to Patna and took basic medical training in a hospital run by the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries.

He came back to Calcutta in 1940 AD. Arrived at the shelter of the nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor Sangha. Then he came up from there to a room in Motijheel basti for five taka rent. He took Indian citizenship that year.

His hard struggle for the welfare of poor humanity began. This is where he started his first school – by teaching a few children A B  C D in the tree. After finishing teaching, he used to go to the scavengers’ mahalla of the corporation. He used to inquire about their family. He used to take care of the sick. Then he would go out begging for money and medicines. After spending the whole day in the slums and on the road, he used to sleep at night at St. Joseph’s Home on Lower Circular Road. He used to serve the elderly in this ashram.

Missionaries of Charity

In 1950, he started his first ministry at 64A, Lower Circular Road in lonely poverty with only eight nuns. This road is now called Jagadishchandra Bose Road. Established his Missionaries of Charity.

This is how he dedicated himself to the service of people and humanity in Calcutta. He poured his soul into the service of the oppressed, the poor, the helpless humanity. Gradually he started building his service organization. He began to take the people who were suffering and suffering with the love and compassion of a mother. He established the Missionaries of Charity with a capital of only five rupees. Today it has expanded to hundreds of branches all over the world. The branch of this service is also in Bangladesh. He has established many children’s homes, women’s work centers, mobile medical centers, food and clothing distribution centers and leprosy centers in many countries for the service and education of humanity. However, he has also received recognition for his immense service to humanity.

Mother’s service centers spread across 52 countries of the world. His Missionaries of Charity have many branches – 60 centers and hundreds of service centers in the city of Calcutta. There are more than hundred branches in different regions of India. Mother has prestige all over the world. His nuns are accompanied by a group of male workers. They are called Brother of Missionaries. They have been working equally with the nuns in the same mind, with the same faith.

At first the Missionaries of Charity were under the Archbishop of Calcutta. Since then it has come under the direct control of the Pope at the Vatican. Mother herself has set the rules of her organization. Like other Roman Catholic nuns, members of this order take vows of poverty, chastity and discipline. But the vow of poverty of this institution is very strictly observed. In the mother’s words — “to be able to love the poor and know the poor we must be poor ourselves.” Like the mother, her nuns also have a few thick blue sari, a prayer book and a cross. They do not take any help from their relatives, they do all their work with their own hands. In this day and age it would seem incredible that there is no electric fan in the mother house. There are a few for visitors and guests only.

From the early days of Motijheel slums, Mother used to walk. 1964 AD Pope Paul VI donated his white Lincoln Continental limousine when he came to India for his use. Mother did not use that car. Sold it at auction and built a home for lepers. The Maha Yajna of mother’s service started in Calcutta. Mother had to take ten years to build the first ashram outside Calcutta. Several girls from Ranchi joined Mother’s Sangh. So it was to them that he gifted the first ashram outside Calcutta — Sisters of Charity (1960 AD). Then he built Shishu Bhavan in Delhi. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated this building. Swiss Ambassador and Union Minister Krishna Menon were also present. After setting up sevasrams in Bombay and other parts after Delhi, Mother stepped into the arena of outer India. He went to Venezuela, Rome, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, various Latin American countries, Australia, Jordan, Yemen etc.

By February 1976 AD he established about twenty ashrams outside India. Mother Teresa, the icon of humanity, needs a huge amount of money every day for this huge work around the world. But there is no direct source of this income. All depends on donations from various people and organizations. Mother is totally dependent on God for money. He only prays. Don’t know where the money will come from. But everything comes to his feet as needed. Mother had no such distinction between rich and poor, educated and uneducated people. Just as he would accept the donation of the rich in the service of the poor, so he would accept the smallest donation collected by begging from the poorest person with utmost respect.

Tagore Ramakrishna said about life service in Shivajnana. Vivekananda showed us that way. But in Mother was embodied the fullness of this vow. His power of service was miraculous. Which is incredible in the eyes of common people like us. But he was a deen from deen among us. He slept in a small room, with only one window, on a bed of leaves on the ground. According to Missionaries of Charity, the mother used to spend only sixty rupees a month on herself. In between eating, wearing, medicine etc. People all over the world are equally interested in this man with white saree, blue fringe, head veil, small body, slow speaking. Just two words to ‘Mother Teresa’ – fake, genuine, high, low, hypocrite, saint, devil – would bring everyone’s head to mind. It is doubtful whether God himself appeared in human form and would have received such respect and devotion from people in all parts of the world. Mother is great in her actions. There was not a single person in the world who had the power to reject any of Mother’s words.

In 1985, United Nations Secretary General Perez de Cuellar said in a meeting about Mother, ‘the most powerful human being on earth’. Our Chief Minister said in a respectful tone, don’t listen to Mother. That is, there is no way not to obey his words. The Pope’s palace in the Vatican was not open to the general public. At Mother’s insistence, Pope Paul was forced to build a home for Jesus’ people there. This was Mother Teresa. And whatever he did whenever and wherever, he did it for the deen’s sake—for the despicable, the neglected, the starving, the sick.

Awards and honors

Mother Teresa set an unparalleled example of loving people. The whole world recognized it head on, rewarded him with both hands.

1962 AD Awarded Padma Shri by Government of India. Mother was awarded the Magsaysay Award that year. 1967 AD Received the 23rd Pope John Peace Prize from Pope Paul VI. In the same year, he was given the Good Samaritan Award in Boston, USA.

A month later, he received the John F. Kennedy International Recognition Award for International Understanding. In recognition of the development of spirituality, Prince Philip of England gave the Mother the Templeton Award for Progress in Religion in 1973. 1974 AD Received Mater et Magistro Award from USA.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 in recognition of her services to humanity. In 1980, he received the Bharat Ratna, the highest state honor of the Government of India.

He donated 15 lakh rupees of Nobel Prize and about 1 crore rupees of other awards to the service of humanity. Mother Teresa built a treatment and service center for leprosy patients with Nobel Prize money.

The largest effort to immortalize Mother is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Ceres Medal recognizes those who deliver a handful of food to the world’s hungry. The obverse of this medal bears the image of a malnourished child holding a begging bowl. On the other side is the statue of Mother Teresa.

Health loss and death

Mother worked tirelessly without judging time. As a result, he fell ill in 1984 AD. A pacemaker should be placed in the chest. Yet there was no end to his forays across the globe. He has been sick again and again. He recovered with the diligent treatment and care of the doctors. Jumped back to work. This is how he brought forward the last lagna of his life. A few days before Mahaprayan, he had to move around in a wheel chair.

On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa, the epitome of humanity at the Mother House in Calcutta, took eternal refuge in the arms of her beloved and adorable Lord Jesus at the age of 87. The whole world is motherless.