Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in a city called Skopje. Her real name was Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She was the youngest child in her family. Her father died when she was young. Her mother taught her to help poor people. Anjezë's family often shared food with people who had very little.

When Anjezë was a young girl, she wanted to help others far away. At age eighteen, she left home and joined a group of nuns called the Sisters of Loreto. She took a new name, Sister Teresa, and moved to Ireland to learn English.

In 1929, she traveled to India. She became a teacher at a school in a city called Calcutta. She taught there for many years and became the head of the school. But outside the school walls, she saw many poor and sick people. This made her very sad, and she wanted to help them.

In 1946, while riding a train, Sister Teresa felt that God wanted her to leave teaching. He wanted her to help the poorest and sickest people. This feeling is called her "call within a call." It took her two years to get permission to start this new work. She began wearing a simple white sari with a blue stripe instead of her old nun's clothes.

She started teaching poor children outside and learned how to care for sick people. Soon, other women wanted to help her. In 1950, she started a new group of nuns called the Missionaries of Charity. Their job was to help the "poorest of the poor."

Mother Teresa and her sisters opened many special homes. One home cared for people who were dying, so they would not die alone. Another home cared for orphan children. They also helped people with a sickness called leprosy. Over time, the Missionaries of Charity opened homes all around the world.

People everywhere learned about her work. A filmmaker made a movie about her called "Something Beautiful for God." This helped many people learn about her kindness.

Mother Teresa won many awards for her work. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She also received awards from India, the United States, and other countries. Even with all these awards, she stayed humble and kept helping others.

Mother Teresa never married. She spent her whole life serving God and the poor. She prayed every day and believed she could see Jesus in people who were suffering. After she died, people learned that she sometimes felt very alone and far from God, even though she never stopped helping others.

Mother Teresa's health became weak as she got older. She had heart problems and needed a special device called a pacemaker. She died on September 5, 1997, in Calcutta. She was 87 years old.

After she died, the Catholic Church studied her life. In 2016, she was made a saint. Now she is called Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Her group, the Missionaries of Charity, still helps poor people all over the world today.