It is fitting to reflect on the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, as this Saturday – March 8 – is International Women's Day.  

Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, then in Albania, she was said to have had at the age of 12, a vocation to serve the poor.  At the age of 18 she joined the Loreto nuns, who were doing missionary work in India.   

After being trained in Dublin and serving her novitiate in Darjeeling (India) she went to Calcutta, where she took her vows in 1928. 

From 1929 to 1948 she taught at St Mary's High School in Calcutta, but in the latter year she moved into the slums of Calcutta "to serve God among the poorest of the poor". In 1950 she founded the order of the Missionaries of Charity, which in 1952 opened a home for the destitute dying in Calcutta and which by 1977 had 81 schools, more than 300 medical dispensaries and some 65 relief centres and missions in more than 50 Indian cities and also in many other countries.

To learn more about Mother Teresa, click on the links that follow.  Also, when researching other remarkable women, remember to consult the "People" list of topics when you search the archive; this list of the individuals mentioned in our articles enables you to quickly identify the people who have shaped history.     

October 2003 – Pope John Paul II beatifies Mother Teresa.

Sept. 5, 1997 – Mother Teresa dies in Calcutta aged 87.

October 1979 – Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.