Some Lesser Known Facts About Mother Teresa
- Mother Teresa was born in Skopje (modern Republic of Macedonia), a city situated at the crossroads of the Balkans.
- She was the youngest among the three children of her parents.
- In her childhood, she was fascinated by the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal, India.
- She was baptised as Gonxha Agnes.
- At the age of five and a half, she received her First Communion and was confirmed in November 1916.
- Her father died when she was 8 years old.
- In September 1928, moved by her desire to become a missionary, she left her home at the age of 18 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland.
- When she left her home at the age of 18, she never again saw her family members in her life.
- She received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese, at Sisters of Loreto in Ireland.
- She arrived in India in the year 1929 and began her novitiate in Darjeeling.
- While in Darjeeling, she learnt Bengali and started teaching at St. Teresa’s school.
- On 24 May 1931, she took her first religious vows as a nun.
- On 14 May 1937, she took her solemn vows while teaching at the Loreto Convent School in Eastern Calcutta (now Kolkata).
- In 1944, she became headmistress of Loreto Convent School, after serving there for almost 20 years.
- She was hugely disturbed by the Bengal famine of 1943 and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946.
- On 10 September 1946, she received her inspiration, her call within a call, while traveling by a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling.
- On 17 August 1948, she wore a blue-bordered white sari for the first time and passed through the gates of Loreto Convent to enter the world of the poor.
- On 21 December 1948, she visited a slum for the first time and cared for an old man lying sick on the road, washed the sores of some children and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB.
- After getting permission from the Vatican, a new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 7 October 1950.
- At the height of the Seige of Beirut in 1982, she rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital.
- By the year 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.
- In 1962, she was awarded with Padma Shri (4th highest civilian award given by the Government of India).
- She was awarded with Phillippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1962.
- She has become an international celebrity by the early 1970s.
- In 1980, she was awarded with India’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna.
- In 1992, her official biography was written and published by an Indian Civil Servant, Navin Chawla.
- In 1979, she was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
- In 1997, actress Geraldine Chaplin played Mother Teresa in Mother Teresa: In the Name of God’s Poor.
- In 2014, a film, The Letters, was made which was based on her letters to Vatican Priest Celeste van Exem and her role was played by Juliet Stevenson.
- In the 2007 movie, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Mother Teresa was portrayed by Megan Fox.
- 4 September 2016, has been scheduled as the canonisation date for Mother Teresa by the Vatican.
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